FREAKS
by CrackedCompass
Summary: (SUPERPOWER AU) 11 strangers wake up in white rooms, suddenly unleashed into a facility, all are unsure as to why they are there or what they're supposed to do, however, there is one thing that every man has in common: superhuman powers: they're freaks. Can these strangers learn how to cooperate with each other and their powers in time to save themselves and escape?
1. Chapter 1

**Freaks - prologue**

"What _are_ they?"

"Don't be so rude, they're freaks, but they're still people. Teenagers: mostly."

"Well… what makes them freaks?"

"OK, I'll show you through them, in room one are two brothers from Hamburg, Germany. The eldest, Gilbert Beilschmidt is just fresh of twenty, and he exhibits the ability to temporarily evaporate into a dark mist and reappear within a radius of a couple of metres. This is despite physical limitations such as walls and boundaries. The blonde, Ludwig Beilschmidt is eighteen, he exhibits superhuman strength, being near indestructible."

"Ah."

"Now onto our second set of brothers in room two, we tracked them down in Rome, Italy after they disrupted a race car tournament. Lovino; aged nineteen and Feliciano; aged eighteen. They both have extreme hyperactivity, endless energy which is accompanied with extreme agility and speed."

"Holy shit, they're literally bouncing off the walls!"

"Yeah, they're bitches to catch, they just keep going, and going, I don't even think they need to sleep. They go like this for hours."

"Well, what's their top speed?"

"Dunno; we hope to figure that out, we've only seen them go so fast that they become blurs and run up walls, as seen here."

"Damn…"

"Now, in room three we have Alfred F. Jones from Detroit, United States. He's an interesting boy of nineteen with a vigilante attitude about him; he'd be pretty useful if he knew how to control himself. He has some form of telekinesis: objects would just move around him; whether he wanted them to or not. Objects would be thrown at people, crushed, anything, sometimes by his command and sometimes subconsciously he commands it."

"Why is there only one in there?"

"Because; you can't see him. That's Matthew Williams; from Toronto, Canada. He's the same age as Alfred, however he's pretty shy: I think. He turns invisible whenever he's around unfamiliar people or in uncomfortable situations."

"Does Alfred even know he's there?"

"Doubt it. I doubt he's even registered that there are two beds in the room."

"Well, that's going to be fun to watch."

"OK, in room four we have Francis Bonnefoy from Paris, France, for years he was undetected until caught at the age of twenty-two. He's special because none of his powers are physical: he's a telepath. Within a few minutes of interaction with someone, he'll instantly know everything about that person and how their mind works; what makes them tick. He'll easily be able to use this to his advantage; it doesn't matter whether the companion has told him anything or not. He does this thing where he'll use his charm and just dissect the mind of his target, getting all of the information he wants. The loud one is twenty year old Arthur Kirkland from Cambridge, England. As you can see … he's an arsonist."

"I'll say; he's going to burn the door down."

"I'd love to see him try; his fire doesn't burn as hot as his temper. Soon he's going to run out of flames to project, if he keeps going he may knock himself out."

"So wait, Francis would know everything about him by now, just look at him… sitting there, watching Arthur."

"He probably knows everything about Arthur that he wants to know."

"Damn, let's hope he doesn't have any secrets."

"Now, in room five we have twenty year old Kiku Honda from Tokyo, Japan. We believe him to be descendant of ten generations of Japanese heroes, as he has completely developed sword-like blades under the skin of his forearms; we suspect this to be a genetic trait. At his own will he can use these swords. Yao Wang, from Shang Hai, China, he is the oldest of our group at twenty three. His ability is to manipulate the electricity in electronics, lights, energy and can move it to other objects and use it to his own ability: primarily to deliver electric shocks or beams of energy; sorta like a laser."

"Great."

"Now lastly in room six, we have nineteen year old Ivan Braginski from Sochi, Russia. He is cold, literally; he has no sort of warmth within his system, and everything he touches with his bare hands gets covered in frost. When he wants, we believe with the presence of water he can turn the water into ice and manipulate it to his will."

"Oh, do we have another invisible kid in there?"

"No, we chose to let him have his kingdom of isolation. I don't want anyone catching a cold because of him. We consider him and Jones to be the most dangerous out of all of them."

"Heh… let's pray to god they don't get out, god knows what they'd do…"


	2. Chapter 2

**PHASE ONE**

"What do you think?" Gilbert asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I don't know," Ludwig grumbled, "it's locked, we appear to be in a holding room… There's not much to go on here."

"Should I check through the door?" Gilbert asked, aware of his brother's sensitiveness towards being left alone.

Ludwig frowned, deep in thought, "Fine, go right outside the door and come right back. We don't know what these people know about us and what they want us to do. It could be a trap."  
Gilbert strolled towards the white door, before leaping forward and evaporating into a dark mist and disappearing through the closed door.

"Gilbert?" Ludwig asked, before taking a startled step back, as the door to their room opened to reveal Gilbert on the other side.

Gilbert leaned against the doorframe seductively as the door swung open, "it's unlocked from the outside."

"Hm…" Ludwig muttered, walking past Gilbert and peering through the door, to reveal a long white hallway, lined with seven more identical doors to theirs. "How odd?"

"What do you think's going on?"

"I really don't know…" Ludwig mumbled as he and Gilbert began to walk towards the door closest to them. As they got closer, they began to hear loud and fast voices coming from the room behind the door.

 _"Questo è stupido, stupido, stupido!"_

 _"_ _La porta è chiusa, siamo rinchiusi in, stiamo andando a morire; fratello?!"_

 _"_ _Non dire queste cose stupide, bastardo!"_

Gilbert and Ludwig shared a confused glance, and they weren't sure whether the people were talking too fast for them to understand or if they were speaking an entirely different language.

Ludwig frowned whilst listening to them speak, "I think they're Italian _… Ciao, siamo amichevole._ "

Right as Ludwig turned the doorknob the door flung open, and a figure tackled Ludwig to the floor at a high speed.

"OH MY GOD, I AM SO SORRY!" An Italian accent squealed as Ludwig opened his eyes and found a pair of wide brown eyes staring directly at him, accompanied by light auburn hair.

"I'm… I'm…" Ludwig muttered, taken aback by the young man whom straddled him awkwardly.

"Bastard!" A deeper Italian accent hissed, pulling the young man back; "You could have been hurt!"

"Who are you?" Gilbert asked as he helped Ludwig back to his feet.

The darker haired Italian frowned, his greener eyes narrowed with suspicion; "I'm Lovino, this is my younger brother: Feliciano. Who are you?"

Gilbert and Ludwig quickly caught wind of Lovino's distrust, "Gilbert, and he's my younger brother, Ludwig. Why are you both here?"

"We don't know, last we remember we were in Rome when—"

Lovino cut of Feliciano, "We woke up here, no idea why. Do you have anything different?"

"No." Gilbert answered. "So, I presume that we're all in the same boat."

Lovino sighed, "trapped, and with no way out."

 **PHASE TWO**

"GODDAMN SHIT!" Alfred cursed, as the bed smashed against the door for the thirteenth time, but the door didn't budge.

"Please, stop that…" A quiet voice says; the surprise forces Alfred to turn around; he would have hit himself if he had neglected the other person in the room, but he couldn't see anybody.

"Huh?" He mumbled, walking around the room, before bending down and looking under each bed. "Is someone here?"

"I'm sorry," the soft voice said. Then before Alfred's eyes, a figure sat on the bed, curled into a shy ball on the edge of the bed.

"DUDE," Alfred gasped, "You turn invisible!"

"Um, yeah—I do that a lot, sometimes without even meaning too! Then I get upset when people forget I'm there! I was scared so I – not scared of you – I just – oh crap—"

"Whoa man, calm down!" Alfred chuckled as he walked up to the shy Canadian and placed his hands on his shoulders, which only seemed to make the Canadian panic even more. "I'm Alfred, what's your name?"

"Matthew…" Matthew muttered shyly, "Hi. Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Nope, and in all honesty, I am so close to snapping…" Alfred explained, flashing a mad smile and insane eyes behind his glasses. Matthew didn't know whether to scream and cry or laugh nervously.

"Good, that makes two of us," Matthew mumbled.

"Is there anything else you can do … you know … to help us get out." Alfred asked, putting his hopes into the possibility that Matthew would have any other abilities to help them get out of the small white room.

"I only disappear. Sorry." Matthew apologised, bowing his head.

"Damn… Now how are we going to find a way out of here?" Alfred asked, suddenly, the bed which Alfred had attempted to use as a battering ram slammed against the back wall, making the two men jump with fright. "Goddammit!"

"What'd you do?"

"I can't control this sometimes, you know?" Alfred sighed, "I don't know why, I just _jolt_ and stuff moves, I hate it!"

"Well… Have you noticed a pattern or something?" Matthew asked.

"Well no, but personally I believe we should settle the pressing matter, eh?" Alfred suggested as he walked towards the door, and pounded his fist on it. "HEY! HEY! IS ANYBODY OUT THERE!?"

"HELLO?!" A high pitched voice responded from the other side of the door.

"HELLO!" Alfred chuckled.

"HELLO!" The same voice responded in a happier tone.

"CAN YOU OPEN THE DOOR, PLEASE?!" Alfred replied, as suddenly, the door to Alfred and Matthew's room opened to reveal four people. "Hey, I'm Alfred and this is …" Alfred turned around to introduce the strangers to Matthew: only to see he had disappeared again. "Um…"

"Are you Ok?" The albino asked, revealing a German accent.

"Nah, yeah, I'm fine man. Ha-ha." Alfred chuckled nervously, "do any of you know what's going on?"

"Ok, so now that is five of us who don't know what's going on." The blonde explained, revealing a German accent: much like the albinos. "Let me guess; you were going about your daily-life, you become dizzy and before you know it you wake up here and you can't get out unless if someone opens the door open for you?"

Alfred's eyebrows rose in unison with an impressed nod, "Yes."

"Great, so we're all stuck here, three rooms done, five more to go." The albino pointed out, "I wonder who else is trapped here."

"So, let me get this straight," Alfred began as he joined the others as they walked towards the next door down the hallway. "None of us know what's going on, why we're here and how we got here?"

"Correct, and so far it seems like we have nothing in common, we're from all over the world so far. Why in god's name have we been put together like this?!" A dark haired Italian hissed in response.

"Hello," A familiar voice said, Alfred glanced over to see a young man whom looked a lot like the Italian, except younger with lighter hair and brown eyes. "I'm Feliciano, I heard you calling!"

"Oh yeah! Thanks for that!" Alfred chuckled happily, extending his hand for a handshake, "Where are you from?"

"Italy, Lovino and I live in Rome," Feliciano explained, gesturing to the other Italian. "I have a feeling we should get along, it'd be for the best; wouldn't you agree?"


	3. Chapter 3

**PHASE THREE**

Francis sighed, watching the Brit fall to his knees and wheeze weakly; and curse under his breath. Arthur had managed to cover the originally white door in a burned coal-like mist, but no damage had been done.  
"How are you holding up?"

"Fuck you," Arthur wheezed.

"Charming… And I thought the English were gentlemen…" Francis chuckled, at the word 'gentlemen' Arthur turned to look at Francis with a poisonous glare.

"Don't bring up gentlemen with me, you _frog,"_ Arthur hissed.

"Why?" Francis asked, leaning back on his bed, with his powers allowing him to learn everything he wants to know about Arthur and his past… including his mixed feelings on the word: gentlemen and something about an older brother.

"That is none of your concern…" Arthur muttered, rising to his feet. "What should concern you is how we're going to get out of this room."

"Well, I thought I'd let you do your thing first, there doesn't really seem to be anything we _can_ do. God, how did you survive in the real world, you go _flame_ without even considering the other person in the room."

"Well, you pick into someone's head without considering their attitude towards it."

"Oh, don't worry Arthur; I knew you knew I was there. Shock therapy gives people this _sixth sense_ doesn't it?"

"Oh my Lord, we have barely spoken and I already hate you."

"Well, I know everything about you; and I think I love you." Francis chuckled sarcastically as Arthur sat on the bed on the other side of the room.

"Since you know everything about me, tell me about you…"

"I'm from Paris, I come from a nice family, no one knew anything was wrong with me because I knew how keep it in." Francis explained dully, "things went wrong when I knew my parents were getting divorced before they did, I knew all of the details of a crime before the cops could even _falsely_ accuse me and I couldn't keep my goddamn mouth shut. I struggle to control my ability and I find myself getting deeper and deeper into a person's head without even meaning to and blurting out everything and it is only getting worse."

"So, you have the ability of running your mouth and reading people's minds. Is there anything else in your utility belt, anything that can help us get out?"

Francis thought for a second, "I'm useless. You're hopeless. We're screwed."

 _"_ _Fantastic."_

Suddenly the door opened slightly, before closing lightly; the Brit and Frenchman froze with both confusion and fright. Until a the two found themselves staring at the back of the blonde boy, who stepped back away from the door, as if terrified of it opening.

"Excuse me?" Arthur asked, making the boy jump with shock, before disappearing again.

"Oh Mathieu … don't be shy," Francis sighed, "you mustn't worry about us."

Suddenly, the blonde reappeared before Francis' bed; "How do you know my name, have you been following me?!"

"Non, no one can follow you; I'm just a mind reader." Francis replied confidently, "I just can't help it, just like how turning invisible is a security for you— _Merde!"_

"Um… Do either of you know what's going on here?" Matthew asked, looking to both Arthur and Francis.

"No – wait a tick, _you just opened the door!"_ Arthur hissed, "How did you do that?!"

"It opens from the outside… _OH."_ Together the three ran to the door and hopelessly tried to turn the handle.

 _"_ _SHIT!"_ Arthur hissed.

"IS ANYBODY OUT THERE!? I CAN HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS!" Francis cried, "FELICIANO; LUDWIG DOES FIND YOU INTERESTING! AND ALFRED; MATTHEW IS IN HERE! _FUCK!"_

"HEY!" An American accent cooed as the door opened, "it's about time you came out, Matt!" Matthew crossed his arms over his chest, overwhelmed with anxiety as he found himself in the sight of Alfred, Arthur, Ludwig, Gilbert, Feliciano, Lovino and Francis.

"Oh my god!" Gilbert hissed, "HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE THERE HERE!?"

 **PHASE FOUR**

"Something isn't right about this place, I can hear noises outside, but I don't know if it's safe enough to come out." Kiku admitted quietly, looking back to Yao.

"I know, so… you say you have swords."

"I know… but I don't want to try to break the door… We don't know what they want us to do, so destroying the door might not be a good idea…"

"True, but they have us trapped: you have every right to break the door." Yao muttered, "There's not much I can do."

"Really…"

"Don't flatter me," Yao grumbled, lying down on the bed.

"Fine," Kiku grumbled, before sharp blades slid out from his wrist, "tell me, what I aim for?"

"Try the doorknob, and stab the hole, the door should open." Yao responded, Kiku focussed and readied his blade, before slamming down on the steel door handle.

Kiku hissed as he fell to his knees and grasped his wrists in pain, _"_ 私の神ああ痛い!"

"Whoa!" Yao gasped as he ran to his fallen friend, only to see he did no damage to the door handle. "Goddammit, how are we going to get out?"

"Did someone say, _get out?"_ An obnoxious American accent asked as the door opened, to reveal a charismatic looking young man, whom stranded confidently before the two on the floor. "HEY GUYS, WE'VE GOT ANOTHER TWO OVER HERE!"

"Who are you, what is going on?!" Kiku hissed, rising to his feet and pointing his sword at the Americans chin.

"Whoa, dude, my name is Alfred; we don't know!" Alfred replied hastily, before suddenly; the bed behind Yao and Kiku jolted backward and banged against the wall.

"What did you just do?" Kiku asked as Alfred shrugged.

"So I guess we're all freaks here…" The blonde Frenchman mumbled, leaning against Alfred, "Don't worry Kiku, he isn't a demon."

"I was kidding about that…" Kiku muttered shyly.

"Ha-ha, no you weren't …" Francis chuckled.


	4. Chapter 4

**PHASE FIVE**

Ivan sat alone, reminiscing in the silence, staring at his gloved hand; feeling the coldness within his hands and breathing in the bitter air around him. He had heard the noises of people wandering around outside his room, but from experience he decided to not even try to get their attention: he sort of didn't want it.

Meanwhile outside, Alfred was about to smash the door open in a fabulous entrance, almost completely oblivious to the situation the people found themselves in. However, Francis; having already sensed the loneliness and dark aura coming from the person inside, held the American back and told him to check the remaining rooms, just in case. Francis opened the door and walked inside, being suddenly greeted with the cold chill that came from the figure that sat on the bed; curled into a ball.

"Bonjour," Francis greeted, "I thought I might as well explain the situation: ten of us are outside, no one knows what's going on. I am Francis, don't worry: everyone is weird here."

"That's sort of comforting," Ivan replied.

"I know." Francis replied, "but we're all weird here and we're all confused, so you might as well take the chance to make a couple of friends, maybe then you won't feel so lonely."

Ivan frowned at the Frenchman, "How do you know that?"

"I'm a mind reader with a bad habit," Francis admitted sadly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"So, you're saying that everyone else is like us?" Ivan asked.

"Yes, except no one else seems to be admitting that; they're all not talking about what we could possibly have in common. It's pathetic, even though I've triggered the conversation by admitting my problem." Francis explained, "They're all hopeless, and so far only a few people remotely like each other."

"Right, sounds like weirdoes," Ivan agreed.

"So will you come out with me?" Francis asked.

"No," Ivan muttered. Francis sighed, knowing this was true. "Do you mind not getting into my head?"

"I'm sorry, I can't help it," Francis replied. "I know sometimes it's hard to control your powers, you can't just follow the winter to avoid people noticing your coldness, eventually people will know your insecurities when the summer comes. We're open here, they're going to know you're weird, and they can't say a thing because they know that they're weird too, and if they do I'm going to telepathically dissect their subconscious and make them relive their worst memories, now how does that sound?" Ivan shrugged, "please, we're all scared; even though no one will ever admit it, it will help you and it will help everyone else if you don't act afraid. We're all in the same boat and whether or not we want to or not; we're going to have to face each other and embrace our weirdness."

"You make it sound like this is cute," Ivan hissed.

"Mon Cher, I know that nothing about you is cute," Francis hissed.

"Get out of my head!"

"I'm sorry, I can't help it!" Francis replied defensively, placing his hands up in defence. "Please, just come out with me, you won't be alone, we'll all accept you."

"You're just saying that; you read my mind so you know what to say to get me to do what you want," Ivan pointed out, "I know not to trust people who know too much about you; I'm sure you already know that…"

Francis' eyes narrowed, "we're all weird here, now; you can either have a chance to make some friends or you can wallow in your own sadness. Be pathetic, whilst everyone else is out there, feeling confused and scared. It would be smart for you to make friends; otherwise you really will be the outcast!"  
When Ivan failed to reply, Francis raised his chin with satisfaction; having not needing a vocal response to know that his words have hit hard. Ivan narrowed his eyes at the Frenchman, letting the homicidal thoughts run wild in his head, as if to frighten the Frenchman.

Francis was almost tempted to spit on the floor before the rude Russian, but what held him back was the knowledge he obtained from reading the past of the man before him, _"Grossier."_

In a huff, Francis left Ivan's room, and heard noises coming from the door at the end, where everyone else conversed; still nothing on their abilities, which only annoyed Francis to no end. Francis opened the door to reveal a large white centre table in what seemed to be a kitchen filled with a fridge, a stove and counters with drawers. "That is it!" Everyone looked at Francis with surprise.  
Francis began his reign of exposure by walking towards the group, "we are all wondering why we're here, but none of us have ever wondered why it is US!" Francis pointed at Ludwig, "you have super-strength and you're a nerd!" then to Feliciano, "you are the ADHD equivalent of the flash!" Then to Lovino, "you are exactly the same, but you have insecurity that Felicano's powers are stronger than yours." Then to Alfred, "You are a telekinetic and can't control his powers; thus random stuff flying and breaking around you." Then to Arthur, "you set stuff on fire and a horrible attitude: which doesn't help you arsonist tendencies _at all."_ Then to Kiku, "swords come out of your arms, like some awesome samurai, your mother had this too, but unlike you: she could control them!" Then to Yao, "You can manipulate electricity and suck the life out of electronics and turn it into a blast!" And finally to Gilbert, "you can teleport and have been stuck in walls sometimes because of this, people already think you're weird because of your appearance: and that only creates more problems for you as you often need to escape! Mathieu, you are insecure and turn invisible when confronted by situations you are unsure about!" Everyone else looked around the room, looking for this 'Mathieu' Francis spoke of, until at the other end of the table, Matthew appeared: sitting comfortably. "Good. I myself am a self-admitted narcissistic mind-reader with a terrible case of chatter mouth and I can't help but delve deep into someone's head and reveal the details I know, you'll probably hate me for this. However, all of you speak different languages, and think in them, so I cannot understand many verbal thoughts: so I am more of a visual mind-reader. Also, the guy in there is a human blizzard with a major case of frost-bite on his hands, and if you touch his hands you probably will get frost-bite. _Are there any questions?!"_

"One…" Gilbert pointed out, "would have you read the mind of the person who brought you here, or was going to attempt to bring you here?"

"Not if it's from a tranquiliser rifle from a safe distance," Francis sighed.

"So, from that it is obvious they knew who they were looking for, and every detail about us… Either they're going to give us some clue as to what they want us to do here, or this is some sort of experiment. See how many freaks can cope living together without killing each other…" Ludwig explained.

"If anything, it'll be Francis to go first…" Arthur grumbled.

Francis mouth curved and he nodded, "I second that."

"Well… until we know at least some more details, we can figure out exactly what is going on here, we need to assess the situation," Ludwig explained.

"I can find out where exactly we are, I can go through a couple of walls and see where we are," Gilbert suggested.

"NO!" Ludwig snapped, "If they know everything about us, then they'll know about you! If anything they've made sure this holding facility is somewhere where you can't teleport through. It's not worth having you risk being buried alive or impaled by infrastructure materials!"

"That was traumatizing for you, wasn't it?" Francis asked; only to receive a bitter look from both Ludwig and Gilbert.

Ludwig bitterly pointed towards the furthest wall, "you must have a range; go as far away as you need to still be involved in the conversation but not invade our heads!"

Francis sighed with defeat and began to move away from the group, "fine, _Baiser tout de vous."_

 _"_ _Vas te faire encule trop…"_ Ludwig muttered bitterly.

"Ludwig, please tell your brother once you learn a new language: he feels left out," Francis pointed out.

"KEEP GOING!" Gilbert yelled at the Frenchman who stood near the end of the room. "But I guess he's right, unless if we find out how we got put in here: we can find out how to escape."

"True," Lovino pointed out, "they must be watching us somehow: what else could be the point of keeping us in here?"

"Perhaps a study: we aren't the only freaks in the world," Kiku pointed out, "The world is finally catching up to us."

"I can't take being involved in another freak show…" Yao grumbled, "no one's getting a light show from me…"

The whole group waited calmly, as if expecting Francis to point out something, but only silence came from the Frenchman who pressed himself into the corner furthest from the group. "Don't worry; I don't have to say anything! It's nothing new for me, sadly!"


	5. Chapter 5

**PHASE SIX**

"Francis, what else do we have in common?" Ludwig asked.

"Well…" Francis began, "other than our general _problems_ , I've noticed that all of us live outside of the law: long story short: if we went missing, no one would miss us."

"That's sort of hurtful…" Feliciano mumbled crossing his arms over this chest, but not denying the truth.

"We're convenient test-subjects…" Kiku muttered in shock, "no one would really look for us if we were to turn up missing…"

"Our parents are either out of the picture, dead or want nothing to do with us, all people around us would question our disappearances: but I question whether much would be done." Francis pointed out, "but if you let me have more time near you I can—"

"No!" Lovino snapped, "We don't want you looking any further into our heads!"

"But how else would he connect the dots and investigate?" Ludwig asked.

"Well if you're so smart, you ask the questions and we answer them!" Lovino replied harshly, "I don't want to trust someone we barely know into our heads! It is a complete invasion of privacy!"

"He has a point," Alfred agreed, "Francis has admitted his lack of control, what if he goes in too far and sees something personal?"

 _"_ _It depends if you have something to hide!"_ Francis called out. "What are you so afraid of; I promise I won't tell anybody something embarrassing!"

"Why not as an interview: in private?" Feliciano pointed out, "we go into a room alone with Francis, let him find what he wants and if he blurts he can do it freely without anybody hearing.

The group stood around in silence, considering Feliciano's idea, "Hm, I like that," Gilbert pointed out.

"Francis," Ludwig said; looking to the Frenchman, "do you think you'll be able to control yourself and focus on specifics?"

"I can try, if I start saying too much then hit me or something, wake me up," Francis pointed out. "I can only see what you are willing to let me see, I am not going to force myself into deeper memories, and you will hardly know I'm there."

"Whoa, I'm still not sure about this!" Lovino pointed out, hooking his arm over Feliciano's shoulders, "We don't like people looking in on us!"

"Then you don't have to, you'll just have to tell voluntarily," Kiku pointed out, "what do you two have to hide? We all have difficult pasts, I'm sure we've all established that—"

 _"_ _It's true!"_ Francis pointed out.

"—either way, just having Francis look in can help us establish _why_ we're here and _what_ we're meant to do," Kiku continued.

"How is that going to help at all!?" Lovino asked.

"FINE!" Arthur snapped, before walking towards Francis, "I'll go first. He's seen some of my memories already, I may as well show him what else I have!"


	6. Chapter 6

**PHASE SEVEN**

"RESTRAIN HIM, _NOW!"_ The orderly barked as Arthur cried out, igniting the fabric of his blue uniform shocking the nearby orderlies, initiating panic among them, "search his room and find that fucking lighter! PUT HIM OUT!"

"But sir, his room is on fire! It's probably destroyed." another orderly pointed out.

Suddenly another orderly ran towards Arthur and doused him with a bucket of water, killing his fire, Arthur hissed and attempted to run, only to be held back by a group of aggressive orderlies. The head orderly, an Irishman, whom Arthur had grown to hate, leaned down to be at eye-level with the young Brit.

"Where did you get a lighter?" He asked, unamused, grabbing Arthur by the chin.

Arthur snickered, "I am one."

The orderly sighed, "clearly our therapies don't work on your pyromaniac tendencies... head office warned me about you..."

"Sir... the firefighters managed to put out the flames in the patients room, this is the fifth incident this month!" A female attendant hissed, before showing him a clipboard, "we can afford him burning the hospital down! We need to do something about him!"  
The orderly placed his hand on the attendants shoulder and whispered something to her, whilst keeping his eyes on Arthur. She muttered something angrily, before marching away.

The orderly looked at the men who held Arthur still. "If nothing will work then I guess we'll have to try more non-conventional methods of _extinguishing,"_ the orderly chuckled at his little pun, while Arthur felt his heart sink with anxiety. "Put him in a chair, and prep him for a _shock."_

"Wait!" Arthur cried as he was literally pulled off of his feet and carried down the hallway, "You can't!" He pointed out, whilst kicking and screaming like a child in a tantrum, "It's ILLEGAL! You can't!"  
Francis followed in horror, holding his hand over his mouth to prevent himself from interrupting the memory; he kept well away from the screaming Brit, until he slipped into the room that he was taken into, just in time to watch him being strapped into a gurney by the wrists and ankles, before finally being strapped in by the waist.  
"I swear to god I WILL BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND! _I WILL BURN IT!"  
_ Arthur tried to ignite his arms; however he could barely manifest a flicker along with wet skin, he swore loudly and cursed at anything and anyone.

Finally, the Irish orderly entered the room, pushing a dusty machine on a tray along with him, the machine was old fashioned and browned by the dirt, appearing as though it hadn't been used in years.

The orderly glanced at every man in the room, "this doesn't leave this room…"

"Sir, will this really work with him?"

"Of course not! It's fucking _illegal you MONSTERS!"_ Arthur spat, fighting his restraints, however he remained ignored.  
Francis noted the unsure glances of the other attendants; however, he understood why they could not fight it, and why they so heavily avoided looking at Arthur in the eyes.

The orderly wheeled the machine to Arthur's end of the bed, as the Brits head was forced down.

"FUCK OFF!" Arthur hissed as the orderly prepared to shove a chunky mouthpiece into Arthur's mouth, before ignoring Arthur's protests and forcing it in, silencing the loud Brit. Arthur closed his eyes tightly and whimpered, almost shaking in fear. Silence befell the room as the attendants pressed Arthur's arms and legs into the mattress of the gurney, whilst the Irishman hovered his face over Arthur.

"Let's hope that this'll fix you… Hm?" he murmured, before using his fingers to brush Arthur's hair off of his wet forehead, before shabbily drying it with his sleeve.  
He stood up, before grabbing the pincers of the machine, mockingly inspecting it; fully aware of Arthur's fear. He finally placed the two ends of the headgear on the Arthur's temples, Arthur closed his eyes tightly as he listened the humming of the machine and the flicking of the switches.

Francis watched in horror as the machine hummed violently, before finally delivering the electric shock, making Arthur seizure violently.  
The attendants struggled to hold the young brit down against the mattress as he shook violently, leaving the bed shaking in rhythm with Arthur's convulsions.

Arthur violently shook for another minute; however, Francis could only sense that it was getting worse, as Arthur began to lose more control… He could feel Arthur holding onto the mattress tightly, until suddenly: Arthur's arms erupted into flames, quickly catching the entire bed on fire, surrounding Arthur in powerful flames.

 _"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"_ Arthur screamed, smacking the Frenchman so hard, he felt a burn on his hand; returning the Frenchman to the real world.

"Sorry!" Francis squealed as Arthur hunched lunged over his lap and sighed deeply, recovering from Francis' intrusion. "Did I go in too far?"

"Did you get the answers you needed?" Arthur hissed as he rose from his seat and began to leave. "I thought you were looking at memories that relate to how I got here!"

"I can only see what you'll let me, and that is what you allowed me to see! I shouldn't go any further, not until you're ready to let me in…" Francis mumbled, rubbing his burning cheek and glaring at the Brit. "Let's hope the others can offer more answers."


	7. Chapter 7

**PHASE EIGHT**

Ludwig sighed as he dropped the weight to the floor with a heavy thud, finding it to hardly be a challenge. He stared down at the bar to see both sides of it were already covered with all of the weights he owned, he didn't even know how much it weighed. Francis watched with shock as Ludwig effortlessly picked up the heavy bar with one hand, and carried it back to the stand.

"Oh my god…" A new voice gasped, as Francis and Ludwig glanced at the door to see a younger version of Gilbert walking into the room, astonished at Ludwig display of strength. "You've gotten stronger."

"And I take it that you still … do that…?" Ludwig muttered sarcastically, "I can't be human. It's definite; this is something only I can do."

"Luddy—"

"Don't call me that."

"Luddy," Gilbert continued, but with a grin, "you are as human as me."

Ludwig glared at his brother, "that doesn't help at all."

"At least you're explainable, me… I… I don't even know how to describe what I do, you can just wink at people and say 'I lift' and you're out of the woods!" Gilbert explained, sounding slightly envious, "at least people don't think you're strange already…"

Ludwig sighed, seeing his point, Gilbert's situation is far worse than his.

"Have you told mutter and vater?" Ludwig asked.

"They're at church, so of course not!" Gilbert hissed, "They'll throw holy water at me and his that the power of Christ compels me before throwing me out! They're already anxious over me as I am!"

"Maybe we should tell them together…" Ludwig suggested making Gilbert glanced at him in complete shock.

"Are you crazy?"

"Maybe." Ludwig shrugged.

"BOY'S, WE'RE HOME!" their mother's voice echoed through the garage, making the two shudder.

"Are we going to do this?" Ludwig asked, as Gilbert rubbed his face with his hands, dreading the decision.

Francis finally returned to the real world, and found himself sitting across from the current Ludwig, whom sat patiently. "You're not giving me much room here… I can only see what you're going to let me."

"How can I improve that?" Ludwig asked.

"It's nothing for you to work on, you're letting a stranger look into your memory, however; the memories you're showing me don't relate… however, I don't think we're at that stage where I can investigate myself and choose what I see." Francis explained.

"I'm sorry…" Ludwig mumbled as he stood from his seat and walked towards the door.

"It's ok, Ludwig. I know you only want to help."

 **PHASE NINE**

In one house and out again.  
They all report the same thing.

 _He's haunted.  
Things get broken whenever he's around, he's a menace!  
I don't want him around my child.  
You never mentioned there was something wrong with that boy.  
I swear to God: enough prayers can't save that boy.  
You let me adopt a freak without telling me!_

"So, _that's it?!"_ Alfred hissed, as the doors to the orphanage closed behind him, as if to say _good riddance._ Alfred lifted his duffle bag off the ground and walked down the street, humming the tune of happy birthday to himself, whilst wondering about where he was going to spend the night, how he would live. His experience with foster homes told him enough: if he can't hold a home, he can't hold a job…

Francis watched on, following Alfred from a distance, far enough to not disturb the memory, feeling the helplessness seethe off Alfred, like an aura. However a deep anxiety boiled inside of Alfred and rise with every step he took, until it boiled over into bitter tears.

"I…" Alfred hissed, pausing and allowing the concrete ground to crumble around his feet. "No… I…" The cracks in the path spread in all directions, even reaching where Francis stood a couple of metres away.

Alfred struggled to let the thoughts inside his head run wild, he had already cried over being abandoned, he had already cried over being taken back to the orphanage after being adopted and he had already cried over his powers ruining his life. He didn't want to go through it again, but just like in his current situation: he had no choice and nowhere to go.  
 _"GODDAMMIT!"_ Alfred screamed causing a jolt in the ground that knocked over the mail box a couple of metres away and set of a car alarm from the parked car beside him.

"There's not much, is there?" Alfred sighed, "My life has just been trying to survive ever since they kicked me out, they were just waiting for the day I turned eighteen so I wasn't their problem anymore…"

"Well… your mind is rather… uncertain…" Francis explained. "Everything is mixed up, some memories are mixed within each other; no wonder you get so confused."

"I know… I don't remember much about where I came from before the orphanage," Alfred admitted, scratching his head, "Hey; you'd be able to see repressed memories, wouldn't you?"

"Yes, though, it varies. I guess it depends on how deeply repressed the memory is, or how badly you don't want to remember. But then medical practices that affect the memory can affect that too,"

"What does my repressed memory say about my parents?" Alfred asked.

"Well… I looked, but … there's not really anything, I can't find any information about what happened with. You know that they loved you, you know they had mixed feelings about your powers, apparently they thought you were haunted for a little while, but then: there is a complete blur, like … like a static, I have a feeling it is repressed, too deep for me to reach, however… I only know what you know."

Francis stopped talking when Alfred's head feel into his hands in defeat, "Why did they leave me?" Alfred asked.

Francis sighed, rubbing his forehead to avoid eye contract with the sad American, "I'm sorry Alfred, I can feel this reaching out to me; it is there somewhere and I am going to get it. I promise."


	8. Chapter 8

**PHASE TEN**

"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, THE ACT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR: A FAVOURITE OF THE PHOENIX TRAVELLING CIRCUS: SUPER-SHOCK. HOLD ON TIGHT AND PREPARE YOURSELVES TO BE ELECTRIFIED BY THIS HUMAN GENERATOR OF ELECTRICITY!"

The lights turned on; beaming onto the young man with his head down, in his hand he held a light bulbs. Yao lifted the lightbulbs, displaying them to the audience before placing the bulb into his mouth, where it suddenly turned on. This trick generated little reaction within the audience, Yao closed his eyes and removed the lightbulb on the table beside him.

Suddenly Yao jumped out of the spotlight as the entire stage filled with light, as the drums boomed like thunder, Yao ran to the metal cage that separated him from the audience and ran his hand along it; generating loud and bright sparks, of which made the front audience jump with surprise. He cartwheeled back to the centre of the stage, and took a deep breath before releasing frantic strands of electricity from his arms.

Francis had the best view that anyone could ask, he watched Yao perform his famous acts and tricks and the audience react with shock and amazement, until his short segment finally finished and Yao escaped from the stage under the cover of darkness.

"Yao!" A demanding voice exclaimed, grabbing Yao by the shoulder, "get out of costume, we have some people who we'd like you to meet." Yao frowned as he quickly put a dirty coat over his red costume, and wiped off his make-up, all while his boss watched like a hawk.

"Who is it…?" Yao asked.

"Some westerners who are interested in investing you, so be nice and do what we say!" He pointed out, making Yao sigh: as if he didn't obey everything already.  
When Yao had finished, his boss firmly grabbed the young mans shoulder and guided him outside of the circus tent where he immediately spotted the people that his boss talked about, two western people stood just outside of the camp, behind these two men in suits with black briefcases stood a larger group of men dressed in black, making Yao feel sick to his stomach.

"Here he is!" The boss announced, shoving Yao towards the westerners, "you've seen his shows, you know what he can do and you know that we're not a trick."

"How do you do it?" One of the westerners asked Yao.

"I was born with it," Yao answered.

"We'll see about that." He replied, before looking to Yao's boss, "we'll take him."

"WHAT?!" Yao asked as the men shook hands with Yao's boos, before handing the briefcase. "What do you mean!?"

"Yao, quiet, this is for the good of the circus—"

"You're SELLING ME?!" Yao hissed as the men who stood behind the westerners moved towards him, now he finally understood why they were there…  
"DON'T. TOUCH. ME." Yao hissed, before calmly walking towards the westerners. "I don't want to fight… It's not worth me fighting for a place where I'm obviously not needed…"  
Yao couldn't look back at the circus, the place he had called his home and passion ever since he was young, he closed his eyes tightly; firing the urge to cry and fight. Despite his pacifism, he was still grabbed by the arms and forced into the black car, where suddenly, everything went black…

"All your life you have moved from one cage to another…" Francis pointed out, "So you believe that the people who trapped us here bought you from your circus?"

"Exactly, I haven't been free since the police took me away! I don't even remember the car-ride! They did something to me..." Yao mumbled.

"So obviously… this plan has been in long production…" Francis muttered as he rubbed his forehead. "This is beginning to terrify me."

 **PHASE ELEVEN**

"WHERE IS HE?!"

"WHERE'D HE GO?!"

"HE RAN IN HERE!"

Even Francis failed to spot the owner of the memory, but he listened to the thoughts of Matthew as he hid behind the trashcan, cloaked in his own invisibility. Luckily for him, his tormentors ran right by him and into the classroom a couple of metres away.

"WHERE'D YOU RUN WILLIAMS?!"

"COME OUT LITTLE-BOY! DID YOU RUN OFF TO MOMMY AGAIN?!"

Matthew sighed as he rose from his place behind the trashcan and walked into the empty classroom where his tormentors stood around, searching all of the cabinets for him, unaware of his ability already being in effect.

"COME ON, WILLIAMS! WE'RE JUST GONNA PLAY!"

Matthew shuddered as their taunts continued, growing more and more threatening by the sentence: it was then that Matthew had an idea.

"You just want to play, eh?" Matthew whispered as he crept behind the culprit before snagging the boys short hair in his fingers, and dragging him downward with his entire mite.

"What the fuck, man?" one chuckled, as Matthew's victim struggled to rise from his place on the floor, panicking in the process.

"I'm not doing this!" he panicked.  
Francis heard Matthew debate in his head whether it was worth having more fun with his tormentors.  
And it was worth it.

Matthew let go of the boy, before slamming the door to the classroom shut, making the group of four boys shudder with fright, and gather together in the back corner of the room.

It first began with pulling more hair.  
Then he pulled at their clothes.  
Then he hit them.  
Then he kicked them.  
Then he scratched them.  
Then he screamed in their ears.  
Then he threw chairs at them.

Francis watched on in shock as the four boys screamed in terror because of Matthew's invisible assault: the whole ordeal looked as though it came out of a paranormal activity movie.

Until he felt something snap inside of Matthew, and he stopped. He thought about the outcome, how much his life will change because of this: and the monster he's just unleashed.

Quickly Matthew backed away from the cowering group and opened the door slowly, before becoming visible again.

"W-Williams…?" One whispered in shock, as Matthew quietly stood by the door, watching his handiwork come to the realization of what had happened.

Matthew said nothing, he felt there was nothing to be said; he just closed the door and left.

Francis opened his eyes and broke the trance, having seen enough, "That monster was a once and a lifetime appearance, please Mathieu, I know already that you've killed that monster inside, but you've nearly killed yourself in the process…" Francis explained.

"But, I…" Matthew muttered shyly, "I can't stop. Ever since that day, I haven't felt like I belonged anywhere... I fought with my parents, I fought with people who loved me... I pushed it all away because... I..."

"Shh..." Francis cooed, placing his hand on top of the trembling Canadians.

"I guess that is something we'll have to work on, Hm?" Francis pointed out.

 **PHASE TWELVE**

Gilbert peered through the gap in the open door, spying on his parents as they spoke to each other over cups of tea, with the news playing on the TV in the background.

"I change my mind, we don't have to do this..." Ludwig stuttered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No, you were right... they're our parents, they have to love us: no matter what," Gilbert explained. "If we don't do this, they'll find out and it will be even worse!"

"Have you thought about just _not using your powers?"_

"I don't think I can live with myself if I pushed it away. I can't just _stop,"_ Gilbert hissed, "have you thought about just _not being strong_."

"Fine!" Ludwig spat.

"Ludwig, Gilbert?!" Their mothers voice called from inside of the living room.

Gilbert glanced at his younger brother, his face was blank as he tried to hide the anxiety, and pretend it was confidence. "Are you with me?"  
Ludwig sighed, before opening the door to the living room, and walking in alongside his brother.

"Mutter... Vater, we need to talk to you about something..." Gilbert announced.  
The room's atmosphere suddenly darkened, as the German parents pondered on what terrible thing their sons could have gotten up to.

"Yes." Vater replied sternly, already dreading what the sons had to confess.

"Um... we do not know how to explain this, so please, bear with us..." Ludwig began, "for a couple of year, Gilbert and I have discovered something about ourselves that we don't think is exactly... normal..."  
At this confession, their parent's faces immediately darkened with fear.

Before they could speak, Gilbert took over, "We can 'do things' that others can't, and we didn't tell anyone because we were scared... But... We have powers."

Suddenly, their faces calmed and they took a sigh of relief.  
"Haha, very cute boys. We thought you were going to tell us that you were-"

"This isn't a game!" Ludwig snapped, only for Vater to slam his fist onto the table.

"Do NOT interrupt us!" He hissed, scaring the young men into standing straight.

"But, we are not playing a trick, we really can. I disappear into smoke and Ludwig is strong! _Really strong!_ " Gilbert explained, avoiding his parents venomous glare.

"Ok, fine, show us!" Mutter demanded playfully, still taking this confession as a childish game.

"Follow me!" Ludwig demanded as he marched out of the living room, everyone followed in tow as he led them to the front of the house, where the family car sat under a blanket of thick white snow.  
Without a word, Ludwig hooked his hand underneath the car's bumper and lifted, elevating the front half of the large car off of the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Mutter screamed, grasping the arm of her shocked husband.

"See?! No one else can do that!" Gilbert pointed out, purposely laying on the ground, underneath the half of the car that Ludwig effortlessly held up.

"Gilbert!" Vater hissed, his cool composure crumbled to reveal fear, "get out from under there!"

Ignoring his father, Gilbert glanced at Ludwig, giving him a nod, "do it."  
Without another word, Ludwig let go and dropped the car on top of Gilbert, their parents screamed as they ran to the plume of black smoke, desperate to save their son, only for the smoke to disappear and reveal nothing underneath the car. "See?!" Gilbert asked.  
His parents looked up, only to see Gilbert sitting on the roof of the car, completely unharmed.

"No!" Vater grumbled, as he stood up from the snow, grabbing onto the arm of his wife. "We are not having monsters like you in our house!"

"But-"

"NO!" He snapped, "We're already looked down upon for having an unnatural child," Gilbert bit his lip at this confession, putting his black hood over his snow-white hair. "But now this is the final straw! What sort of curse did we get!"

"But, honey, they're still-"  
Vater quickly grabbed his wife's head, ending their sons defence.

"I know, but we need to think of us, think of our community... what they are... whatever they are..." He whispered, completely ignoring their children.

"You can't!" Gilbert pointed out, jumping off of the roof of the car.

"We're still your children!" Ludwig pointed out, fighting back tears.

Mutter glanced at her sons, only to have her face turned away, "We can always start again..."

"NO!" Gilbert and Ludwig cried.

Suddenly, Francis was tapped on the shoulder, pulling him away from the memory, only to see Gilbert covering his face with his free hand. "I'm sorry..."

"No, no, it's OK." Francis pointed out, patting the German's pale hand, "I told you to pull me out if I went too far, Arthur slapped me, so you did better."

"It's just... hard to even remember that actually happened... They sent Ludwig and I to live in a church, where we were ridiculed and tormented... we had to run away..."

"It's not your fault," Francis pointed out, however, he knew that his words had little impact.


	9. Chapter 9

PHASE EIGHTEEN

"So… they know all of our weaknesses…" Gilbert hissed, stretching his legs out underneath the table.

Feliciano opened the fridge against the wall, and peered inside, "well, they want us to live: that's for sure…"

"What can you make?" Kiku asked as Lovino ran to the fridge to help Feliciano examine it.

"We can make a lot here, there are lots of fruits, vegetables, carbohydrates, meats and dairies… we can cook a lot with the stuff in here," Lovino explained, taking out a tomato from the fridge, whilst Feliciano moved on to searching the cupboards and pantries.

"They sure are being generous…" Feliciano admitted, "Now; who wants some dinner? I am going to make pasta whether you want it or not."

"Ja! I'm starving!" Gilbert moaned.

"I've never had Italian before, I'm looking forward to it," Kiku admitted, "we should spend all of tomorrow trying to figure out what else we can do to get out—"

"Should we try to get out…?" Matthew asked, "I mean, that if they put this much effort into keeping us in, shouldn't we at least wait a little longer to see if there is anything ready. We haven't even been here for a whole day; we should calm down and assess what exactly is going on."

"You have a point…" Ludwig pointed out, rubbing his chin.

"But what if 'what they have planned' is something bad?" Yao added, "I'm sure the majority of us would feel uncomfortable if we just wait around like sitting-ducks!"

"I agree!" Lovino pointed out as he and Feliciano finished setting up the ingredients for pasta. "We can't just wait around; we should at least look around more before getting settled in like this is some sort of fucked up holiday house! I refuse to take a shower until I know for sure there are no cameras around us!"

"Though, I can't sense any," Yao pointed out, "it's confusing me! Usually cameras, even wireless: I can sense… I am so confused. Maybe I'm just tired or hungry…"

"Does that usually impact your ability?" Ludwig asked, before Yao nodded sadly. "Hm… Well, become well rested and we'll try again tom—what time is it?!"

Everyone paused, considering Ludwig's question; Feliciano was the first to answer, "Oh God… What time is it?"

"We could have been out for between an hour to a day, it depends on how long it took them to get us all in here…" Ludwig muttered, "We're clueless, I guess now we should rely on our body clocks to know when to sleep and when to wake up…"

"So we don't know whether it is midnight or midday… this is going to drive me crazy…" Kiku grumbled. "Hey… do you think we'd be eventually let out?"

"Well… We have to act somehow, either we must perform the actions that they want us to perform or we break out ourselves… otherwise we really are just animals set up in a zoo…" Ludwig grumbled, resting his elbows on the surface of the table. As the noise of bubbling pasta sauce and the chopping of vegetables filled the air, and the door suddenly opened with a loud bang to reveal a messy haired American.

"I hear food!" He gasped, as though he had been drowning under water and it was the noise of cooking pasta sauce that brought him above the surface.

PHASE NINETEEN

"Ok, Alfred, did you sleep well?" Francis asked as Alfred calmly took a set in front of where Francis stood.

"Yeah, that pasta filled me right up!"

"Good, now, onto business…" Francis placed his hands on the sides of Alfred's head and leaned in, concentrating hard on the American's forehead, "if you feel a numbing or buzzing sensation in your head: that is normal." Then suddenly, Francis' concentration broke with the presence of another person in the kitchen. "Oh, Arthur."

"Pardon me," Arthur mumbled, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, "do you mind?"

"Well, I—"

"Not at all, eh Art?" Alfred chuckled, "if Francis is welcome into my head, so are you."

"Merde…" Francis sighed; rolling his eyes, "Keep in mind, I will talk, and chances are that I will talk a lot."

"I don't mind, well, I mean, people are gonna know… I just want this over with, really," Alfred replied.

"Don't be so excited, I won't be able to break such a deeply rooted memory in just one session, this needs to be a pre-planned progress…" Francis muttered, placing his hands back on the sides of the American's head, "Arthur, if you move at least a couple of more metres away: I won't have your thoughts in my head too."

"You really must learn some self-control," Arthur hissed as he moved further away from the two.

"Oh I wish, ," Francis sniggered, the three were suddenly interrupted as Gilbert entered the room, breaking the silence, and Francis' concerntration.

"Arthur did you—"

"OH MY GOD, LET ME BREAK A MIND IN PEACE!" Francis hissed, literally pushing the Americans head out of his grasp, "Yes Gilbert, Arthur did burn the door when we were first trapped, and he will come with you to see it even if I have to make him. Just stay out of the kitchen until I say it is safe!"

"Whoa…" Gilbert gasped as he and Arthur left the kitchen, lightly closing the door behind him, "touchy…"

"Don't worry about him," Arthur replied, "so what do you want with me?"

"Ludwig noticed yesterday how the inside of your door was burnt, we walk by again this morning and it is completely fine," Gilbert explained.

Arthurs jaw dropped open with shock, "WHAT?!"

"Ja, it's like the door has been repaired," Gilbert pointed out. "The door is good as new."

"How is that – how is that even possible?" Arthur hissed, "When Francis and I fell asleep, the door was black!"

"And you didn't even notice the door was different when you woke up?" Gilbert asked as he showed Arthur the door, whilst Ludwig inspected it.

"I… I don't know, I didn't think about it…" Arthur muttered in shock, as he ran his hand down the part of the door he had original incinerated. "There is no way…"

"Did you try to wipe the burns off the door?" Ludwig asked.

"No, it was scorched…" Arthur muttered as Ludwig picked his nail at the door.

"This is not of our own action…" Ludwig concluded, sighing deeply, "we aren't alone here…"

"Obviously, someone is walking around and cleaning up our messes!" Arthur hissed, as the door to the second room to the end opened, and Feliciano's head appeared through the gap.

"Is everything ok?" He asked.

"Feli, you and Lovino don't need to sleep, do you?" Ludwig asked.

"We can," Feliciano answered as he came out of the bedroom, "but we don't have to as often."

"Did you two notice anything last night?" Gilbert asked.

"No, well; Lovino would point it out if he noticed anything strange." Feliciano answered as he walked towards the group, and stared curiously at the door. "Wasn't that burned?"

"Yes," Arthur answered.

"This is proof that we're being watched, "Ludwig pointed out.

"Could it be a message?" A new voice asked, as Kiku came down the hall and stood by Arthur. "They're letting us know we're under their control."

"Or maintenance," Gilbert added, "one thing is for sure, if no one in our group did this; then there is another power watching us."

"But more than anything, it means that there is a way in and a way out…" Ludwig pointed out, rising to his feet.

PHASE TWENTY

As the others investigated the mystery of Arthur's healing door, there was a sudden scream coming from the kitchen, so instinctually, everyone present ran into the kitchen, forcing the door open in a panic. Lying in the middle of the floor was a groaning Francis, as Alfred sat in his chair, clinging onto the wrists for dear life, with a shocked look paralysed onto his face.

"What is going on?!" Arthur cried, running to help the Frenchman off the floor, as Ludwig and Feliciano went towards Alfred.

"NON!" Francis cried as Ludwig reached to touch Alfred, "DON'T TOUCH HIM!" However it was too late, for as soon as Ludwig's hand met Alfred's shoulder, the American screamed and the room shook with him, knocking over chairs, opening and closing cupboards and drawers, until suddenly the large table flew towards Ludwig and Feliciano at a harsh speed. Forcing the two against the wall, and Ludwig to push against the table before it could crush he and Feliciano, letting it fell to the floor.

"Mom… Dad…" Alfred whispered, as tears formed behind his glasses. "Mom, dad, mom, dad, mom, dad…"

"What did you do to him?!" Arthur hissed at Francis as he struggled to help the Frenchman to his feet.

"I went in too strongly, and brought back a strong memory without the proper preparation…" Francis explained, "He's gone into shock."

"So…" Ludwig muttered as Kiku and Yao entered the kitchen, to be shocked by the mess. "You broke him?"

"Pretty much…" Francis sighed, "I'd never brought back someone's memory like this…"

"Will he be ok?" Matthew asked, finally uncloaking his invisibility to reveal himself standing by Francis and Arthur.

"Oui, eventually he'll come back, until then just don't touch him…" Francis sighed, brushing off his shirt.

"What did you see?" Arthur asked Francis quietly.

"I brought back a memory about his mother and father; he knows what they look like. This suggests that he would have been around five or six when his memories become repressed… He would remember what happened if he hadn't blocked out the memory." Francis sighed, "This worries me greatly…"

"Do you think it's that bad?" Arthur asked as he guided the Frenchman past the others and out of the kitchen.

"It's complicated; defiantly," Francis answered, rubbing his forehead.

"Don't go any further into his head then!" Arthur hissed, leading Francis into their room.

"I don't think I'll be able to control it, either he'll make me or I'll make myself," Francis answered, "he is going to have to want this explored further and honestly: I feel that my powers will focus on him more."

"Maybe if there are witnesses," Matthew pointed out; revealing himself beside Arthur, who jumped with fright.

"Can you stop doing that?!" Arthur hissed at Matthew, before looking at Francis; "can you warn me next time?!"

"It's too much fun," Francis chuckled, "but I guess Mathieu has a point, if either of you two stand as witnesses, if physically something wrong happens, you can snap me out of the trance before I get in too deep."

"Hm, I don't know…" Arthur muttered unconfidently, "but if Alfred insists on perusing this, we can have a go…"

"You're right, Arthur," Francis said, looking at the confused Englishman, "you're right… he is a danger…"

PHASE TWENTY-ONE

"Alfred, you silly little duck; you! Ha-ha!" A sweet and womanly voice chuckled, "oh my god you're so cute!"

"Oh wow, buddy; that's a big bear you got there!" A man added, as Alfred felt a warm and firm hand cover his whole head and rub through his hair. "Has anything moved?"

"Just the bear, Alfred wanted it, it came to him…" The woman explained, "I just… I just don't know what to do. Do you think something's wrong?"

"Well, the doctor did say he's perfectly healthy, the medium said there's no evil presence, and he's a happy boy … I don't think there's anything else we can do, other than …"

"NO!" The woman hissed, "We are not putting him anywhere! He's our son!"

"I know, I know … don't worry…" The man cautioned, "Our little boy isn't going anywhere…"

"I just… what else can we do with him? What if it gets worse?"

"It can't, can it?" The man asked, "Sure, it's a little weird. He's just special…"

"Why him…? Why our Alfred? Did we do this?"

"No, of course not. All we need to do is make sure that he knows that there is nothing wrong with him and we love him regardless; then he'd have no reason to spiral out of control…"

"We love you, Alfred…" The woman said, as Alfred felt a warm hand caress his cheek and brush his hair.

"We love you so much…"

"MOM! DAD!" Alfred screamed whilst rocking forward as he finally opened his eyes, only to see a pair of blue eyes.

"Alfred!" Feliciano gasped as Ludwig stepped away, "are you ok?"

"You were gone for a while," Kiku pointed out.

"I… I…" Alfred stuttered, "I just… I need…"

"You need to rest!" Ludwig admitted, "You can sort out everything as soon as you're alight?"

"I need Francis to tell me what the fuck I just saw—"Alfred began as he rose from his seat to walk by the blonde German, however his path was blocked by the Germans arm. "They were my mom and dad! He let me see my mom and dad, I want them back!"

"Alfred—"

"I need to know why they left me!" He cried, pressing his head into the Germans shoulder in a wheeze of defeat.

"Francis needs you to be well rested and mentally healthy to continue," Ludwig promised. "This has tired the both of you; you need to recover before you can continue…"

Alfred lowered his head in disappointment, "fine, I'll go to bed…"

"Are you hungry?" Feliciano asked as Ludwig began to lead Alfred out of the kitchen.

"No… thanks…" Alfred mumbled.

Feliciano sighed, "so much has happened here and I doubt we've even been here for twenty-four hours."

"Really?" Kiku asked, "I've had long sleeps at least a couple of times."

"No way has it only been a couple of days!" Gilbert added, "We've been here for much longer!"

"I still think this is an experiment—"

"HA! What if it's a reality show!?" Yao laughed in his chair; however the humour was not shared.

"I am just terrified about that goddamn door!" Lovino hissed, "After that I don't even want to go into the bathroom if a camera is in there!"

"Have you even been in there?" Kiku asked, Lovino shook his head, "Well, I doubt there are any cameras in there.".

"The showers are actually pretty nice," Gilbert commented as he rested his hands on the back of his neck and outstretched his elbows.

"But we can't just sit around and wait!" Yao hissed, crossing his arms over his chest, "we need to get out of here or I'm going to go crazy!"

PHASE TWENTY-TWO

"Firstly, I do not agree with this," Ludwig pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest, and refusing to allow the American into the kitchen.

"But, dude, you said that Francis needed me to—"

"It was to keep you safe," Ludwig admitted, "you don't understand what happened while you were in shock. You nearly hurt Fel—"

"But … I wasn't prepared to control myself—"

"You can't control yourself at all!" Ludwig interrupted.

"What if it was Gilbert!? Huh?! Or your parents?! I don't know what happened to them! As far as I know, we were a happy family and then something went wrong and I was thrown into an orphanage with out of control powers!" Alfred hissed, "Something happened to them, and I'm going to find out what!"

Before Ludwig could reply, the German found himself pressed against the wall by a foreign force, as Alfred made his way past him and into the kitchen. As soon as Ludwig was released from the wall he let out a deep breath before following Alfred into the kitchen, to see him approaching Francis as he ate breakfast beside Arthur and Kiku. Whilst everyone else was gathered together throughout the kitchen, either eating or socialising. "WHAT IS GOING TO MAKE YOU PREPARED FOR IT THIS TIME?!"

"We're better prepared because we know what I did wrong last time," Francis replied, "This time, I am allowing people to witness and maintain the peace."

"How does help at all?" Ludwig asked.

"What are we even talking about?" Feliciano pointed out.

"Fair points, only half of you have a fair clue as to what is going on, I'm going to break into Alfred's repressed memory so he can have closure." Francis explained, before being smacked on the shoulder by Arthur, "what? You know it's true! I know you are scared Arthur, but you really must let me do my thing."

Arthur frowned deeper, "Keep talking and I will hit you again."

"And I do not doubt that," Francis agreed, "just like how I don't doubt how you find me—Ouch!"

"I told you,"

"No matter, I need to know what happened, I can't go on without the closure. This is the closest I've ever gotten to knowing anything about my parents, because of Francis I, I saw their faces, and I heard their voices… They loved me… So I want to know why they left me…" Alfred explained, with his eyes filling with tears.

"Fine…" Francis began, "everyone stand back, and I do not care what you are thinking, I am not changing my mind…"

Everyone listened to Francis, and made their way towards the furthest wall, to go out of Francis' thought hearing range.

"Thank you so much," Alfred thanked as he took the seat in front of Francis, "you have no idea."

"You underestimate me, of course I have an idea," Francis chuckled before he lightly placed his hands on the sides of Alfred's head and closed his eyes, forcing the others to watch on in curiosity and fear.

Yao had hoped to watch Alfred get some closure, but then he feared the consequences if the news were to be something against Alfred's tastes.

Kiku understood Alfred's desperation for closure, and watched on sympathetically and on the inside he prayed that Ivan wouldn't enter the kitchen and interrupt this.

Ludwig watched on cautiously, waiting to see a chair fly or the table flip into their direction.

Feliciano still had no idea what was going on, and just accepted the fact that he may forever have a hard time understanding.

Lovino would glance back and forward between Alfred and Francis, to Feliciano; wondering what sort of sinisterness could be behind Alfred's repressed memory.

Gilbert leaned casually against the wall, regretting not bringing himself a chair. He wasn't concerned about the threat Alfred posed as: he just wished that the boy could have some closure so he could finally calm down.

Matthew had been invisible from the second Alfred walked into the kitchen with a mission, he doubted any of the others remembered he was there, until he felt a hand touch him lightly, he looked to see Arthur, trying to find out where Matthews face was.

"Please… he needs to know you're here for him too…" Arthur whispered, encouraging Matthew to reveal himself. "Ah, I knew you were hiding there…"

After finding Matthew, Arthur's thoughts focussed back onto the topic at hand: he was terrified about whether Francis and Alfred will leave this experience the same people that they were, particularly Alfred. Francis had revealed to him his concerns over Alfred's abilities to handle bad news; which he fears he may have to face. Arthur constantly fought the urge to march forward and slap the Frenchman for dangerously using his abilities and the American for wanting to go so far. But then, he understood the desperation for inner peace and the urge to help…

"Fuck!" Gilbert hissed, catching the attention of the wall-pressed group, "We can't leave, can we?"

"Oh my god!" Ludwig hissed angrily, lightly punching his brother in the shoulder. "Now is not the time to be an ass!"

"Shut up, both of you, if any of you idiots distract Francis, I swear to God; you will be German barbecue by the time I am done with you!" Arthur hissed, eyeing everyone in the line against the wall.

"Was that a threat?" Gilbert hissed, glaring at the Brit.

"Alfred pushed his memory so deep into his head, unconsciously he's refusing to let me in," Francis recited, as if he were in a trance. "He's holding onto the memory he received of his parents in our last session, he plays it over and over again and cherishes it. He deeply believes his parents left him, but why do his memories suggest otherwise?"

The group waited against the wall for what felt like hours, watching either each other, or the Frenchman and the American sit opposite each other. Occasionally a chair will fall over, or the table would jolt, or some other unnatural movements would take place; maybe even Alfred's expression would change or he himself would twitch. Francis kept speaking with a dull voice, reciting information he knew and he learned; to everyone else, it was more babble about the perks of Alfred's conscience and memory strength, but nothing about his parents…

Suddenly, Francis and Alfred both shuddered in unison, and Alfred fell from his chair and onto the floor in a fit of tears.

"Alfred's parents loved him, but they knew what he was, they noticed the objects moving. But they accepted him, and believed that if they accepted him long enough eventually they'll learn to live with it." Francis continued, "they loved him, they loved him, and he was their miracle in every way… they didn't think he was dangerous, he wasn't a threat…"

As Francis spoke, the others began to notice object around the kitchen begin to tremble, but all were too afraid to interrupt. As Alfred's cries and trembles grew stronger, Francis' voice grew tenser.

"For years they learned to cope and would tell Alfred to use his ability for good, they didn't allow him to be ashamed. They told him he could be a hero… Then … they… they… they…."

"NOOO! NO! NO! MOM! DAD! NO! NOOO! NO!" Alfred screamed.

"They're dead…"

Then suddenly, the whole room shook like a catastrophic earthquake, forcing everyone off their feet and plunged the room into darkness.


	10. Chapter 10

**PHASE TWENTY-FOUR**

Kiku coughed after breathing in what felt like a cloud of dust, as he pushed a large piece of the table off of his back. Small glitches of light momentarily returned a weak light to the room, where he saw the others lying on the floor around him.

"Is everybody ok?!" Ludwig yelled, as suddenly, a small fire began in the corner of the room, providing a permanent warm glow throughout the room, as Arthur stood from the floor, the flame moved with him, revealing that the flame originated from his own hand.

"What the hell was that?!" Lovino wheezed, pushing a piece of rubble off of his back, and brushing the grey dust off of his body.

"Francis broke Alfred, but this time at a much worse scale," Arthur explained, helping Yao to his feet.

"Oh no…" Kiku mumbled, pointing towards the American who laid in the middle of the room, curled into himself, with debris surrounding him. Upon closer inspection, Kiku realised that the small space around where Alfred laid had been untouched by the disaster.

"I've found Francis!" Yao called out, moving some parts of the cupboards, to reveal an unconscious Frenchman underneath.

"Did anybody see what happened?" Matthew asked.

"No idea," Gilbert answered, "we just heard Francis say that… Alfred's parents … um…"

"That's why he was alone…" Arthur sighed, before biting his bottom lip, staring at the unconscious American.

Kiku sighed, before looking at the roof above Alfred, discovering a hole in the roof, "hey! There's a hole!"

"Hm," Ludwig grumbled, "a way out?"

"I'll check," Gilbert said as he walked towards the hole, "because if whoever's watching us can fix a door, imagine what they'll do to fix this."

"Speaking of which, all electricity or general power has been wiped out, if they were watching us before" they certainly can't now." Yao explained.

"Which means that if we have to get out, we have to do it now," Gilbert said as suddenly, he turned into a cloud of black mist, before reappearing at the opening in the roof, hanging from the hole in the roof. "It's a vent! We can crawl through it!"

"Well, what are we waiting for!?" Lovino asked, "Let's leave!"

"Not without Alfred and Francis!" Arthur pointed out, bending down to touch the American with his free-hand.

Remembering the last incident; Feliciano gasped, "Arthur, wait—"  
Arthur's hand laid lightly on the American's head, before lightly patting his hair.

"He's fine…" Arthur sighed with relief.

"Maybe we can carry him and Francis?" Matthew suggested.

"Wait!" Yao gasped before running to the door, frantically pulling the large pieces of rubble away from the door, "we still need to get Ivan!"  
Yao finally got the door open and ran into the darkness, before being followed by Arthur, who provided some kind of light.

"Yao, don't go running into the darkness, it's dangerous!" Arthur hissed.

"IVAN!" Yao cried.

"What the hell happened?!" Ivan's voice cried, as he stumbled out of his bedroom, "I was sleeping, what the hell did you do?!"

"We found a way out!" Yao exclaimed, running towards the Russian, "We can get out."

Ivan frowned, "How?"

"A vent," Arthur answered, "come, we'll explain everything. We need to go _now_."

Ivan gripped his sides with his gloved hands, holding onto himself. His only thoughts of freedom since being trapped had only been associated with exposure, if he gets out: the world will see him for what he is, a monster who only creates sickness and cold. He had seen this of himself ever since Natalia…  
The idea of being alone and isolated suited him, but at the same time, it terrified him: as did the idea of freedom.  
"Ivan, we're all scared," Yao pointed out, taking one of Ivan's gloved hands, ignoring the coldness that radiated from Ivan's hands. "Please, trust me. We're all together in this, we are not separating."

Ivan squeezed Yao's hand, "Ok... fine… I'll go…"

"I'll take this one," Ludwig said, bending down and lifting the unconscious American over his shoulder, he smiled when he noticed Arthur, Yao and Ivan entering the destroyed kitchen, "Ivan, do you think you can take Francis?"

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Ivan asked nervously, "Would I make him sick…?"

"Ivan," Arthur sighed, "We don't have too many options right now, if you can Ludwig can take the casualties; we'll have a better chance of escaping together…"

"Fine," Ivan agreed as he frantically rubbed his gloved hands together; hoping to make himself warmer to touch, before he lifted the Frenchman off of the dirty ground.

"Go on," Ludwig said, as he lifted Feliciano towards Gilbert, like a parent passing a child onto another, eventually everyone had been lifted into the vent.

 _"_ _Arthur!"_ Lovino hissed, when he noticed a bright amber light coming from Arthurs inflamed hand, _"put your fire out!"_

"Well, how else are we supposed to see!?" Arthur hissed, his flame intensifying in spite. Everyone crawled forward to make room for Gilbert as he helped Ivan into the vent; and pulled Francis' limber body in behind him.

"OK! Here comes Alfred!" Ludwig called there was a sudden jolt that vibrated the vent. Kiku looked back to see Ludwig dangling from the hole in the vent, with Alfred hanging unconscious over his shoulder, as Ivan pulled Alfred upward and into the vent.

"Now… Arthur said, as Ludwig pulled himself into the vent, leaving the group sitting in the small metal space. "Where to?"

"Forward," Ludwig ordered, "And keep going until we reach an end!"

 **PHASE TWENTY-SIX**

"Move it!"

 _"_ _Everyone shut up!"_

"Arthur, can you make a light please?"

"Arthur, do not make a light! I do not want a fire in here!"

Despite the plea, a golden light filled the vent, as Arthur's forearm became a torch, revealing everyone's sweaty and tired faces in the tight space.

"How are Francis and Alfred?" Arthur asked, looking to the back of the line where Ludwig and Ivan dragged Francis and Alfred.

"Francis makes noises when I yank him too hard," Ivan admitted; lifting the Frenchman's limp arm before dropping it with the _thud._

"Nothing from Alfred…" Ludwig sighed, adjusting the American's limp hold around his shoulders.

"Hey, guys… do you think they've come to clean up the place yet?" Feliciano asked.

"Probably… this means that we need to find a way out soon…" Ludwig admitted, Gilberts eyes narrowed, before he pressed his ear against the bottom of the vent.

"If only Francis was awake…" Gilbert muttered, his tone over voice suggested that he had an idea, "He could hear whether someone was underneath us…"

"NO!" Ludwig hissed, "You are not going down there!"

"Well, he shouldn't have to go alone!" Arthur replied, "Gilbert; you can take people with you if you disappear, right?"

"I… I actually don't know," Gilbert admitted shyly. "I have never done it."

"Try to take me with you, that way you're not alone… We'll let you know if it's safe." Matthew said as he scuffled closer to Gilbert.

"I'm not sure if this is a smart idea, Lord knows what could be down there: people, dirt or nothing!" Yao pointed out harshly, "are you two stupid or something?! I do not like this idea!"

Ludwig remained silent, before lightly knocking his fist on the walls of the vent and listening quietly. "Hollow… we're not buried. But then again, this vent is probably above another hallway."

"That's all I need," Gilbert muttered, before grabbing onto Matthew's arms and facing him; with a cheeky smile on his pale face. "Let's hope this works." Suddenly Matthew felt out of breath, he became cold and empty, as though he literally became nothing but a prisoner in a field of darkness, in a feeling he could only describe as like being blown away by a large gust of wind. When he finally gained the bravery to open his eyes again, he felt a _thud,_ as he and Gilbert landed on a marble hallway floor, surrounded by bright lights.

The two grumbled in pain as Matthew felt around the cold and hard floor he laid on, "What just happened?"

"I hate it when that happens…" Gilbert coughed as he sat up, "we fell. When I made us disappear, we reappeared in mid-air…"

"Ouch…" Matthew hissed.

"Are you ok?" Gilbert asked, offering his hand in helping the Canadian to his feet.

"Yeah, just shaken, where are we?" Matthew asked, as he and Gilbert looked around, seeing nothing but the empty hallway lined with doors. "This place can't be empty, can it?"

"LUDWIG! CAN YOU HERE ME!?" Gilbert cried, looking at the white ceiling, only to hear muffled noises in return, "IT'S SAFE TO COME DOWN!"

The muffled noises above continued, until a blade forced its way through the white plaster of the ceiling, and began to cut a line like a saw. Whilst Gilbert watched the process of the blade, Matthew looked back and forward between both sides of the hallway, dreading the idea of someone walking into his line of sight, or some kind of reinforcement…  
The ceiling began to crack, before Ludwig's black boot broke a hole through the ceiling, finally making contact between the two groups.

"Are you ok?" Ludwig asked.

"We're fine, just get down here!" Gilbert responded, as Ludwig pushed away more parts of the roof and air-vent, until the hole was finally big enough for someone to crawl through.

"Damn…" Ludwig grumbled, judging the distance between the vent and the ground. "Alright…" He looked back to the people who joined him in the vent. "I'll go down first, and catch everyone who comes down after me."

"Come on…" Matthew muttered, catching Gilbert's attention unintentionally, "I don't like this at all… where's the guards, the reinforcements? They must know that we're out by now… and with Alfred and Francis like this…"

Gilbert didn't know what to say, he had no idea how he could possibly make the situation more bearable for the Canadian. So, he remained silent and only offered a hand on Matthew's shoulder as a sign of support.

 **PHASE TWENTY-SEVEN**

 _"_ _Alfred…"_

 _"_ _Alfred, come on, you have to get moving…"_

"Ugh…" The American grumbled, shaking his head to cope with the sudden dizziness.

 _"_ _Alfred!"_  
Alfred finally opened his eyes to see Francis, standing with him in what appears to be a park, filled with trees and decorated flower-beds, Alfred felt a whole new sense of peace as he took in his first breath of air. "Are you awake now, can you hear me?"

"Where are we?" Alfred asked with childish wonder.

"OK… don't freak out, but we're in your mind, in a way: I really have no idea how to explain it, pretty much if your subconscious was a place." Francis explained quickly visibly shaken.

"Oh my god…" Alfred groaned angrily.

"Yes, I am. But keep in mind that none of this is real," Francis pointed out, "this is your head and you can control it: remember that."

"Sure, so … How do we get out?" At Alfred's question Francis bit his lip nervously.

"That's the thing…" Francis muttered awkwardly, "I think you locked us in."

"How?"

"You really … don't remember?" Francis asked.

"Remember what?" Alfred asked, making Francis frown with confusion as he looked through Alfred's memories, but Alfred answered Francis' questions himself. "All I remember is that … I wanted you to find something for me, a memory. I don't remember what it was though? Do you?"

Francis stood paralysed for a few moments, before deciding on a way to answer the confused and innocent American, "I don't remember either. Ohhhhh my god…. Ooooh no, this is not good..." Francis' head fell into his hands as he continued to grumble in panic, as Alfred took the opportunity to look around the area. Before the two stood a meadow filled with stunning red roses, accompanied by a calming blue sky.

"Huh…" Alfred sighed as he walked by Francis and started walked towards the nearest flowerbed, "red roses…"

"They mean something to you," Francis pointed out, still visibly shaken, "red roses are your favourite because your favourite foster-home grew red roses."

"Can you not speak out my whole backstory?" Alfred asked, becoming visibly irritated.

"I'm sorry, I will try: I promise," Francis promised as Alfred turned in another direction, and onto a cracked concrete path, which reminded him of the road he broke when he first left the children's-home. Alfred began to walk down the path, which led down the steep hill. Francis followed with his hand over his mouth, to prevent himself from speaking out Alfred's thoughts and memories: all of which were triggered by the multiple reminders which were scattered around the space.  
As the two journeyed further down the path, Alfred became more and more distracted by the things around him, often stopping to reminisce in the memory for minutes at a time. Before Francis began to notice something off about the space, the air gradually became colder and carried a bitter scent, as the sky grew darker and clouds infiltrated the face of the sun.

"Um… Alfred," Francis muttered, freeing his mouth temporarily, only to receive a hateful glare from Alfred.

 _"_ _What?"_ He hissed, obviously inhaling the toxicity of the atmosphere.

"Nothing," The Frenchman squeaked, before covering his mouth again; frightened by the sudden change of tone in the Americans voice, which became full of thoughts of destruction and memories of violence.  
But still … nothing about his parents … This thought bothered Francis' whom knew that there was a memory lingering just beyond his reach.

"And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air  
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.  
Oh, say does that Star - Spangled Banner yet wave  
o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? - _heheheee…"_

This sudden burst of song from Alfred worried Francis, especially when Alfred's thoughts suddenly changed to express random thoughts… Spanning from basic memories, like meeting Arthur, to arguing with the manager at the children's home years before.

"Alfred…" Francis muttered, only to be completely ignored, suddenly being shut out of Alfred's thoughts, as the sky glowed with a dark purple hue.

Francis walked towards Alfred, who stood a couple of metres before him, only to see the American was staring at a small clearing, where the black grass was covered with light violet flowers, and in the centre of this clearing was a small boy, who sat alone on a rusty swing-set. Francis looked at Alfred's face, to see his eyes transfixed on the boy; as his mind remained totally blank.

Suddenly, Francis felt something grip his ankles and before he could react; he was pulled to the floor, Francis found himself being dragged by his feet, with his stomach scrapping along the ground, and he frantically attempted to grasp whatever ground he could, but failed miserably and was being pulled further away from the American, "ALFRED! ALFRED, WAKE UP!"

Francis glanced beyond Alfred to see the boy who sat at the swing-set, whom looked exactly like Alfred as a child, with the same hair, the same eyes, but the absence of glasses.

"ALFRED, THIS ISN'T REAL! WAKE UP!" Francis cried, "I SAID THIS ISN'T REAL! YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR HEAD! THIS ISN'T REAL!"

Suddenly, the grip on Francis released itself and let his legs drop to the ground: as Alfred's body jolted forward.

 _"_ _MOM AND DAD DIED BECAUSE OF ME!"_ The boy cried, as Alfred's face tensed, _"You can't stand me!"_

"Alfred! What happened to your parents is not your fault!" Francis cried, rising from the ground against the gravity's heightened pressure that attempted to keep him down, "It was too far out of your control! Now you can learn to control your powers through this!"

The boy and Alfred ignored Francis, as the child suddenly screamed, causing the violet flowers to burst into flames, _"YOU HATE ME FOR WHAT I DID AND YOU WILL CONTINUE TO HATE ME FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! I CAN'T LET YOU KNOW WHAT I DID!"_

"ALFRED!" Francis cried, looking to the still motionless older American, who watched his younger self with broken eyes. "Don't let your powers control you! Don't live under its influence, it is your body, your mind, your power! Don't let it dictate your life when you can live with it in peace! You're mourning, both of you!"

"I…" Alfred muttered as he began to walk towards the distraught younger version of himself. "I can't control you … but doesn't that mean we can work together?"  
Alfred made a space through the engulfed flowers to make a path between himself and his younger version.  
The boy tried to speak, but became overwhelmed by his own blubbering and release of tears, "I don't hate you … I know it must have seemed that way. It was a mistake, it wasn't our fault… What mattered is that mom and dad loved us… they loved you so much… They stayed until the very end; they would forgive you … just as I do…" Suddenly, Alfred fell to his knees and took the little blonde boy into his arms, and delivered a tight hug. "I am so sorry, if you forgive me, can we work together…?"

 **PHASE TWENTY-EIGHT**

Slowly creeping in the back of the child's mind, the power inside of him released itself. The child never knew what to do or how to combat it, no one did… He knew that his parents cried when he wasn't looking, they had fallen into their misery more and more with every passing incident. By the age of four, he was no longer allowed to have friends over, the risk became too much to handle.  
The five year old stared out of the window, talking to his mother about how excited he was to be turning six in that coming month. His mother engaged with him from the front seat as his father drove.  
However, something changed the mood, and conversation between the child's mother and father became tense, the seemingly loving atmosphere had disappeared completely between the child's parents; and he knew that it was his fault.  
The tense talking had become arguing, and the adults began to talk as though the child wasn't present.

The child's heartbeat rose as his breathing became deeper, he knew another surge of power was building up inside of him, and needed to be released.  
He tried to tell them to pullover, so he could breathe and they could sort themselves out.  
But they didn't hear.  
He began to cry as the intensity of his power turned into pain.  
But they didn't notice.  
He held his head in his hands, as the noises around him turned into a buzzing pain into his ears, and began to travel through his head.  
They finally noticed when he started to scream.  
But it was too late.

People would come to know it as one of the worst traffic accidents in American history… people blamed the mechanics of the vehicle for the sudden steering malfunctions, and the devastating effect that the crash had on the people who sat in the two front seats… According to police, it was a miracle that anyone survived the utter chaos of the crash, and could walk away from the devastating wreckage, let alone a small child.

The country cried at the misfortune of the accident, donations flooded in to give the survivor some sort of hope; however, the small child knew that it was his fault... and that same power will never leave his side...


	11. Chapter 11

**PHASE TWENTY-NINE**

A deep grumble emerged from the sleeping American, as a loud thunder roared through his head. He was tired, he was confused, he was sore, his back hurt... everything felt wrong, however: there was a sense of peace. Something had changed within him, there was no more chaos inside of his head, his memories were clear, he thought of his parents faces, and then he remembered everything.

"Francis is waking!" A familiar voice cried.

"ALFRED!" Another voice cried as a warm weight pressed into his shoulders, and his eyes finally opened and stung from the bright light, until that light was blocked by a face.

"Arthur?" Alfred asked, squinting as his vision returned.

"Oh thank god..." The Brit hissed, looking back at the others who had gathered around the dazed American. Francis quickly sat up and took a deep breath. He glanced down at the American and smiled.

"No way in hell am I ever doing that again!" He chuckled as he was helped to his feet.  
Only when he stood, did Alfred realise what was wrong with the situation.

"Wait... where are we?" He asked.

"You broke the roof," Ivan explained, "There was a way out."

"So ... where are we now?" Alfred asked as everyone started to move down the hallway, Alfred quickly gained back the full control of his body.

"We don't know." Ludwig answered.  
Francis froze, interrupting the group's movement; he stopped before one of the office doors, before pointing at it, "someone is in there. Accountant, he knows the way out. Evacuation is happening."

Ivan was the first to open the door and march into the office, startling a short young man in a plain suit. At Ivan's presence, he dropped his papers that scattered across the floor.

"Oh my god…" He gasped, as he ran behind the desk as the others ran into the office.

"Way out. Now." Gilbert growled.  
The man trembled, unsure of how to react.

"We won't hurt you if you give us what we want," Francis promised.

"But…" The man gasped, searching through the drawers of the desk, before suddenly pulling out a small gun. "You are the reason the building is evacuating, you'll kill everyone!"

Ivan snapped, running towards the man and slapping the gun out of his hands before pushing him against the wall. The man gasped with fear as Ivan walked towards him, slowly taking off his black glove, revealing the frostbitten hand beneath.

"Ivan—"Yao snapped, trying to move towards the Russian, but he was held back.

"He's afraid, he's going to talk." Francis explained.

"Wait, can't you just read his mind?!" Ludwig pointed out.

"I don't work like that; unless if you want me to sit down with him for twenty minutes," Francis explained.

"But … he's…" Feliciano gasped, until he felt Lovino tug on his shirt, pulling him out of the office door.

"Now's our chance," Lovino hissed, "we can break out; we can outrun anything they throw at us."

"Ok, one: we don't know the way out. And two: we can't just abandon them!" Feliciano explained.

"Why not? We can be fine alone!" Lovino exclaimed quietly.

"They're just like us, we can't just leave them behind… we need them, we need a group, we can't just run away again!" Feliciano cried, heartbroken by the fear in his brother's eyes. "We can't outrun everything…"

"Is everything ok?" Ludwig asked, following the brothers out of the office, followed by the screams of the poor worker.

"Fine." Lovino hissed, pushing his way past the German and back into the office, only to be confronted with the sight of the Russian's cold hand grasping the neck of the panicking worker, making him scream in pain as the coldness of Ivan's frostbitten hand held onto his neck.

"I'm not even choking you; tell us how to get out!" He barked.

"Calm down Ivan…" Francis cooed, sitting on the desk, calmly watching the display in front of him.

"Can't you just look into his head…? Do we need this?" Arthur asked.

"I'm looking, he's not showing me how to get out, he's loyal to his work," Francis explained.

"I'm getting tired of this…" Ivan hissed, pulling off his other glove with his teeth, "I'd hate to ruin your face too…"

"KEYS ARE IN MY DESK TO THE ELEVATOR THAT IS THREE FLOORS DOWN, FIND THE STAIRCASE AND GO TO FLOOR D, USE THE ELEVATOR AND CLICK LOBBY!" The man panicked. Ivan frowned, before releasing him, letting him drop to the floor and grasp his frostbitten neck in pain, wheezing.

 **PHASE THIRTY**

Like an army marching towards a war, the group of freaks ran down the hallway, hungry for freedom.  
No security camera stood a chance, as Yao forced a malfunction on any set of eyes that their captors had over them.  
They were no longer afraid of the danger that lay before them; their sense of impending doom was overwhelmed by the buzz of adrenaline.  
With Alfred forcing open every door, nothing could stand in their way and nothing could hide.  
When they passed the lounge that stood before the elevator that the man had described, Arthur ignited the lounge area, setting everything he could on fire as the elevator doors opened and everyone bunched inside. Arthur only set foot in the elevator and let the doors closed when he was satisfied with the destruction he had caused to the upper level.  
Everyone stood in the large elevator, watching the view of a setting sun over a forest, giving a hint to the fact that they were far from a city. Finally, the elevator stopped and everyone held their breath, and a couple of people held each other's hands tightly, some related, some not…

As soon as the doors opened, no one hesitated to run through the lobby, before making it out of the large glass doors, only to freeze at the sight of the amazing force that stood between them and freedom.  
Multiple Special Forces vans blocked the driveway out, behind multiple cars were men armed with guns and dressed in proper black bullet proof material.

"SURRENDER NOW! OR WE WILL HAVE TO APREHEND YOU FORCEFULLY!" A voice spoke from a megaphone from behind a car.

Kiku was the one who swallowed his fear and stepped forward, smiling calmly at the man who spoke, encouraging the others to discard their fear and step beside him. Kiku unleashed his swords, Arthur's arms burst into flames, electricity surged through Yao's body, the Italians braced themselves to dash, Alfred raised his fists, and everyone stood in a way that embraced the inevitability of a fight. Ready to embrace whatever force stood in their way,

 _"_ _Make us."_

 **Hello everyone, CrackedCompass here!**

 **I wanted to thank everyone for the support that this story has been getting, I've honestly been sitting on this idea for a while now, but never had the motivation to bring it into action.  
Mainly I wanted to write this to the fact that I am so happy that someone has actually taken the time and the effort to draw some fanart for my story. It is so adorable and I'd like to thank Inviso-Bella from the bottom of my heart for this lovely gesture.  
** art/Freaks-595842486  
This is some adorable fanart and is very inspiring and smart, thank you so much for this!  
(I was told that if the link doesn't work, to just google: deviantart inviso-bella freaks)

thank you to everyone who has shown support for this story!


	12. Chapter 12

**PHASE THIRTY-ONE**

The man behind the megaphone smiled, sending shivers down the spines of the freaks, as a line of men with large guns moved to the front of the line, standing between the freaks and the cars, these men wore special visors that blocked their eyes.

"PRIORITY TEAM!" He cried.

"MATTHIEU! THEY SEE YOU!" Francis cried as the men shot, aiming a couple of stairs down from the group, seemingly completely missing everyone. Small wires shot from the guns, like an industrial Taser, and caught onto something invisible, Matthew screamed as he suddenly became visible. The Canadian shook violently in reaction to the electric current that coursed through his body before falling onto the stairs, signalling the group of freaks to launch into action. Arthur and Ludwig charged at the men who shot Matthew, Arthur threw flames in their direction, forcing them to part, making room for Ludwig to swiftly push over the police car that acted as a shield for the other men behind.

Yao jumped onto the turned over car, his eyes glowed with power as he lifted his arms, delivering powerful electric shocks to the men who surrounded the car, making them fall to the ground and shake. Feliciano and Lovino dashed past the cars and the men, scouting for any sign of an escape; the Italians ran down the long and elegant driveway, weaving between the trees and bushes that decorated the driveway. When the Italians finally caught sight of the large metal gate that stood between the freaks and their freedom, they were interrupted by the emergence of a smaller group of guards, who seemed less menacing than the main force, their Tasers were standard.

"FELI!" Lovino cried, warning his brother before the guard shot the Taser, however; the youngest Italian dashed out of the way, before kicking the Taser out of the guard's hands, before smacking him across the face.  
Lovino had caught on to the fight, attacking the other guards before they could prepare to counter Feliciano and Lovino.

Back at the top of the driveway Francis ducked for cover behind the toppled car, as Alfred pushed multiple guards back from the moving group of freaks. Gilbert kneeled next to the Frenchman, holding the trembling Canadian in his arms. "I can get Ludwig to come and protect you,"

"It's ok," Francis replied, "it looks like we're winning… we're actually winning."  
Suddenly the plants that surrounded the building burst into flames as Arthur ran past, chasing a guard whilst laughing like a maniac let loose.

"Well, we have a couple of weapons of mass destruction…" Gilbert chuckled.  
Suddenly Kiku jumped over the car, landing beside the German.

"They're falling back, and Feliciano and Lovino found the exit at the end of the driveway!"

Meanwhile, Alfred ran to find Arthur, avoiding any conflict that came near him. He walked behind Ludwig as the German lifted a slab of concrete off the ground, only to throw it like a discus at one of the vehicles. Ivan left multiple men with terrible frostbite on their faces, and ice clogging their guns. Yao had left multiple people with electric shocks; the equivalent of tasing them. Feliciano and Lovino raced up and down the driveway, taking down or distracting any man that they could.

"Arthur!" Alfred cried, finally seeing Arthur as he set upon a man with his flames.

"Alfred!" Arthur replied, before running towards the American, "They're running out of power, we need to get the others and go, _now!"_  
Holding hands, they ran towards the car, where they knew Francis was hiding, and where Gilbert was guarding him and Matthew.

Suddenly, a loud thundering sound boomed through the driveway, plunging everything into darkness, leaving only the stars as a guide.

"YOU HAVE ONE LAST CHANCE TO SURRENDER!" the same voice boomed.

"YOU'LL HAVE TO KILL US!" Alfred screamed confidently.

"WE'RE NOT GOING TO STOP!" Arthur continued, squeezing tightly onto the Americans hand.

 _"WE CAN TAKE ANYTHING YOU THROW AT US!"_ Ivan added.

Despite the surge of power and confidence that flowed through the American, something still felt wrong, he wanted to take the opportunity and run away with the Brit and leave everything behind, but something held him back. It was Arthur, tugging at the Americans hand, pulling him closely, before whispering into his ear.

 _"No matter what happens, I want you to run…"_ Arthur whispered.  
Suddenly the lights shot on, revealing another line of heavily armed guards who stood before a firetruck.  
"Oh you…" Arthur hissed, igniting his hands  
As soon as it started, a firefighter stepped forward, holding the fireman's hose at his side, suddenly a large burst of water smashed into Arthur, forcing him back.

Alfred lifted his arm and stood forward, prepared to crush the man who was hurting Arthur, "N-"

A number of guards threw metal canisters towards the group, unleashing a menacing green gas that engulfed the group, Alfred covered his mouth and held his breath as he watched Yao fall first and quickly understood what was going on.

"ARTHUR!" Alfred wheezed, unable to find his way around in the thick green fog. "ARTHUR…!"  
The urge to breathe overcame his desire to scream, the American became dizzy and numb all over his body, until he felt something cold grab his arm, and drag him back towards the building.  
Alfred caught a glimpse of his friends lying on the road, he caught sight of Ludwig attempting to shield Feliciano, despite having fallen himself, and Francis, Matthew and Gilbert lay down behind the car.  
Ivan pulled on Alfred, fighting against the urge to fall himself, using his scarf as a make-shift gas-mask.

"But… Arthur…" Alfred murmured as he weakly pulled against Ivan's grip.

"He's gone. They would have gotten him first." Ivan pointed out as he started to run faster, having gained more strength from the fresh air. "They've got Yao, Kiku, Lovino—they're going to get everyone!"

Ivan and Alfred found themselves faced with the stone wall, a barrier between themselves and freedom, however: Alfred knew that he didn't want it, not yet at least, not without the others.

"We can't just leave," Alfred pointed out.

"No. I am like you. I am not leaving without someone." Ivan pointed out, "We need to make them think we did. If they think that we've left, they will go looking."

"So, you want me to break the wall?" Alfred asked.

Ivan smiled, "Yes."

With rage in his mind, Alfred jolted forward, swinging his arm and creating long cracks in the wall, getting more and more powerful with each swing. Alfred huffed with each swing, begging the child inside of his mind to let him continue.

"Alfred!" Ivan hissed, pulling the American away, revealing the hole in the stone wall, "you've done it, we need to hide!"  
Ivan pulled Alfred towards the trees, as the ground behind them illuminated in torch light.

"We're going to save them…" Ivan whispered.


	13. Chapter 13

**PHASE THIRTY-TWO**

The Frenchman wheezed, unable to breath easily, something blocked the passage of the air… he tried to move his mouth, but something stopped him… He finally opened his eyes; weak to the bright lights he leaned forward, feeling his hair brush his cheekbones, but failed to touch his lips or jaw.  
Now that he could finally see, he saw that he was not alone, two men stood by the door a couple of metres away, still in his range of thought hearing. They were filled with thoughts of their orders.

 _Kill any subject that comes near._

Francis didn't appreciate the idea of his friends being known as _subjects_ , however it was the fact that death would come to them if they came to save the Frenchman that concerned him the most. Why does he need such serious protection? When the guards outside used non-lethal's, why are the men before him armed with serious guns?

Francis opened his mouth to speak, however, he finally became of why his breathing was difficult: he was muzzled and left unable to speak.

Francis could feel his guard's active attempts to ignore his presence, he knew that they knew he was awake; they both stood facing each other on both sides of the door.

Francis stared deeply at the guard who stood nearest to him, watching his memories of how he got to where he stood, and why…  
All he knew was to stand and guard, and he'll return home at the end of his shift and continue living his life… Simple… but yet… the longer the guard spent in Francis' range, the itch at the back of his mind begged to be explored.  
Francis pondered: should he explore this now?

 **PHASE THIRTY-THREE**

Alfred sighed, watching Arthur's earlier work consume the efforts of the firemen, and pondered how he could get past them and back into the building. The third floor had finally been consumed by flames, proving the power of Arthur's fire.  
The firemen climbed up a ladder that they had set up, which led towards a window that entered the fire-consumed level of the building.

"Perhaps we wait for a chance to climb?" Ivan asked.

"We could, but what then? We don't even know what level they're on… they could be anywhere…" Alfred sighed.

"Well…" Ivan pondered, point towards the upper levels. "I don't think they would take our friends upstairs, because of the fire blocking the way."

"So you're saying we go down?" Alfred asked.

"You need to think more like the enemy," Ivan pointed out, flashing the American a smile.

"I don't know if there's anything other than the lobby down there!"

"If you actually looked at the level selection in the elevator, the lobby was labelled 'G', for ground," Ivan explained, " there were other levels, there is more to this building than meets the eyes. Besides, if they were able to hold all of us together in the same room with free roam: who knows what they have when they want to keep us still…"

 **PHASE THIRTY-FOUR**

 _"LET US OUT!"_ Feliciano cried as his muscles ached in pain from the lack of movement and the awkward positon he was pressed into. He looked to his brother, who was fastened to the wall beside him, however, hung his head and remained silent. "Why aren't you trying?"

"Feliciano, we can't get out." Lovino grumbled, "We can't even move… we're fastened to the _fucking wall_. I can't even scratch myself or move my legs!"  
Lovino pushed on the metal that pressed his arms to the wall, and the metal that fastened his shins and thighs to the wall.

"Excuse me for trying! At least I'm doing something!"

 _"Don't start yelling at me! I'm the one who suggested that we ran!"_ Lovino snapped, finally lifting his head to look at his little brother.

"Because if we left we would have abandoned everyone and we are not going to abandon anyone!" Feliciano replied, struggling to move under the weight of his trap.

"And now we are trapped, and we're probably going to die here."

"We're not going to die!" Feliciano snapped.  
Instead of fighting Feliciano's crippling positivity, Lovino hung his head and resumed to stare at the floor, struggling to hold back the tears.  
" _Lovino, we're not going to die here… We're not…"_


	14. Chapter 14

**PHASE THIRTY-FIVE**

Kiku sighed, looking at his German companion, who continued to wobble on his knees within his concrete straight jacket.

"Ludwig!" Kiku hissed, "Ludwig, can you hear me?"

Kiku finally got a response from the German, "I can't… I can't concentrate. Where am I, what's going on?"  
 _Drugged;_ Kiku concluded, understanding why their captors couldn't bear for Ludwig to be at his strongest.  
Kiku stared at his own restraints; a large metal cap covered both of his hands and forced them together, giving his blades no room to come out. At the end of the cap was a chain, which connected him to the wall, offering hardly enough room for Kiku to stand properly, that kept him on his knees.  
However, something bothered him more, where were they? Why were they put together in some kind of waiting room? A harrowing sense of dread started to creep up on Kiku, and only got worse as Ludwig's drunken-like state continued.

Suddenly, the door at the other end of the room clicked and opened, in came a man wearing a white coat. He was accompanied by others who pushed a gurney beside them, the man stood and stared at his two captives.

"Which one first?" he murmured, completely ignoring Ludwig's incoherent groans.

"Put K.H on the gurney; take him to the lab, and serve L.B with another dose: he isn't supposed to be functioning yet," He explained to the men behind him.

"What is going on?!" Kiku asked, as the men pushed the gurney towards him, "Where are our friends? What have you done to Ludwig!?"  
His questions were ignored, and the men surrounded him, as one began to unlock the chain that attached the young man to the wall.

"Don't touch him!" Ludwig growled, weakly fighting against his restraints, as Kiku was lifted off of the ground and placed onto the gurney, unable to fight with his blades, Kiku squirmed in the captors grip, unwilling to lie still in the gurney.  
However, these efforts were useless, as the men placed an aesthetic mask over Kiku's mouth and nose, forcing him to breathe in a numbing gas. Slowly Kiku began to lose movement in his legs, and struggled to keep his eyes open as he watched the world move around him whilst he was pushed away in the gurney: no longer able to fight.

 **PHASE THIRTY-SIX**

 _"IF YOU DON'T LET ME OUT I WILL BURN YOU ALL TO HELL!"_ The brit screamed, one guard ignored him completely, however the other, continued to stare at him: as if Arthur was some form of entertainment. _"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?"_

"I just find it funny… you're in a freezing cold room, but yet, you still threaten to burn us."

Arthur sighed, ignoring the cloud of steam that left his lips; he knew that the room was freezing; so much so that parts of the walls were covered in frost.  
"You underestimate me…" the Brit hissed.

"You still haven't noticed? Have you?" The guard chuckled.

"Don't do it…" The professional guard hissed, "You know we're not allowed to engage."

"Come on… just one…" He chuckled, before looking back to the Brit. "you're straightjacket, does it feel _familiar?_ We had to borrow it from some old friends of yours."

"What?" Arthur hissed, finally taking the time to register the appearance of his white straightjacket, finally analysing just how familiar it was.  
Internally, Arthur set his arms alight, however, he only felt a terrible burning sensation on his stomach, and black smoke emerged from the gaps in his collar. Just like how Arthur's specially made jackets did _in the hospital._  
"YOU BASTARDS! _YOU FUCKING BASTARDS! I WILL BURN YOU ALIVE WHEN I GET OUT! I SWEAR TO GOD!"_

"You shouldn't have provoked him…" the professional guard whispered to his companion, "now he won't shut up…"

"OHHH, I WILL MAKE YOUR LIVES A LIVING HELL!" Arthur spat, "I WILL BE A FUCKING MENANCE!"

"And how will you do that? Huh?" The guard asked, cockily smiling at Arthur.

Arthur froze, unable to think of a confident response, however: his smirk never faded, his pride would never allow him to act weak in front of these men. Despite his confident stance; inside the Brit panicked.  
"What have you done with my friends?"

"OH! Shifting focus, are we?" The guard asked.

"Don't say anything else!" the professional guard snapped, slapping the other guard on the shoulder.

"Come on, do you seriously think I was going to tell him anything?" The cocky guard chuckled, "he's just so funny to wind up."  
The pain of anxiety in Arthur's heart grew worse, as the thought of uncertainty unsettled the Brit even deeper than before, he began to think thoughts about death, pain and torture…

 **PHASE THIRTY-SEVEN**

"Come on, dude; soon the fire will be out!" Alfred hissed, pulling Ivan through the fire-riddled floor, occasionally ducking behind a burning desk to avoid the sight of a working fireman.

Ivan wheezed, wiping the dripping sweat off of his forehead. "I can barely breathe in here…"

"It's ok," Alfred encouraged, "I can see the door that leads to the stairway…"

"What then?" Ivan asked, "I can't do anything until I've cooled down."

"Hah, unlike you, my weaknesses are not temperature…"Alfred chuckled, before Ivan started to cough violently, "Oh Jesus, we need to get you out of here."  
Alfred looked around for anything he could use to distract the fireman who worked to put out a raging fire in one of the offices. Alfred silently thanked Arthur for his work, before Alfred threw the burning desk that he and Ivan had used as cover into the burning room, creating a loud bang.  
 _"Run for the door, NOW!"_ Alfred hissed as he lifted his arms and tensed his hands into fists, forcing every door in the hallway to suddenly shut, trapping any fireman inside.  
Alfred ran for the door, running in after Ivan and bolting down the concrete stairwell after the lumbering Russian who clung to the walls for support. Holding Ivan under his shoulder, Alfred encouraged him to run down the stairs, careful to not trip over the large hose line that ran up the stairs.

"Look, lobby…" Ivan wheezed, gaining more of his strength back. He pointed to a sign on a large black door that read _'G LEVEL – LOBBY'_ before pointing to the continuing decent of stairs, "more stairs… I knew they'd be underground."

"Ok, Ok, good for you, let's go!" Alfred hissed.


	15. Chapter 15

**PHASE THIRTY-EIGHT**

The guards only stood there, Francis noticed that neither of them even thought about moving. Francis struggled to even keep his mouth open under the power of his muzzle.  
Alone with his own thoughts, Francis found himself traveling deeper into his own memories, he wanted to chuckle over the fact that he knew nearly every personal detail about other people, but yet, no one knew hardly anything about him.  
However, one person did...  
Francis closed his eyes and allowed himself to observe his own memories, anything to pass the time...

She always sat at the same place, reading her book, she'd always get back to their apartment at least an hour before Francis, so she was always there as he walked through the front door.  
At first, everything was peaceful, it wasn't easy, and it wasn't perfect: it was manag- _he_ was manageable.

She had always told herself that she was ok with his ability, she told herself that lie so many times: she began to believe it. Francis always new about this underlining insecurity, however, he had enough control over himself to keep that fact to himself.

However, the peace wasn't to last, the longer they spent together: the weaker she became… her thoughts became more irritated as her mental state worsened. Francis pretended he couldn't hear her thoughts of anger. However, despite the pain and irritation, he loved her. He began spending more nights away, even sitting at the other end of the room, doing anything to give her the headspace she needed.  
But… it still didn't help, his range grew and her patience weakened.  
The arguments became more and more frequent, and Francis could hear everything that she didn't have the heart to say: and it broke his.

Her thoughts got worse, as did her mood; she delved deeper and deeper into her own despair, with many of her thoughts being occupied by Francis' lack of control and lack of privacy, as well as guilt for thinking so many terrible things. Her thoughts were no longer his, as Francis' powers intensified.  
Her condition worsened, to the point where she wasn't coming home, she wasn't speaking, but rather: communicated her darkest thoughts towards the Frenchman, but yet, he knew that deep down she still loved him.  
Francis knew she was sick, she didn't mean to think such terrible things… he still loved her regardless, so he knew what he had to do.

One night, he waited for her to fall asleep; he got out of bed and got dressed; confident that she wasn't going to wake up. He wandered around the tiny apartment, and collected everything that belonged to him, stuffing it into the suitcase. He knelt down to look at her face as she slept, reminding himself that he was doing this for her, and he gave her a soft kiss on her forehead, "Je te reviendrais… "He whispered, _"Joan."_ Before the Frenchman knew it, it had been two years since that fateful night: he felt better about his abilities, he could block out thoughts now and he knew how to stop listening. He had been practicing this every day since he left, determined to return to her a new man and one she could hopefully give another chance. He arrived back at the apartment complex, knocking on the landlord's door, he asked about her: wondering if she was still there and if he could have a key. Francis was so proud of his abilities, he didn't listen to the landlords thoughts as he pondered over the identity of the woman Francis was asking for. However, Francis didn't expect the landlords face to darken, the landlord stuttered, "I'm sorry… she doesn't live here anymore… she…. She died last year…" Francis froze, unable to understand what he just heard; needing to know now, Francis allowed himself to hear the saddened landlord's thoughts _Depressed_ _Alone_ _Suicide_ Francis began to hyperventilate, unable to cope with what he was hearing, he ran away from the complex, feeling as though he was about to be sick. His head began to pound as loudly as his heart, as he finally began to cry. The Frenchman spent the following weeks either on the sidewalk, in bars, or even brothels, he felt himself slowly spiral out of control. He was hardly able to hold up a job because of the complications with people that his powers created. Francis wasn't sure whether he ever stopped crying throughout those weeks. Francis pulled himself back to reality, finding himself still sitting in the bright room, unable to move as well as speak, but now he had the company of tears. **PHASE THIRTY-NINE** Ludwig couldn't move, he lay with his face pressed against the cold floor, and his neck ached in pain from the terrible angle. He couldn't feel his arms or legs, and he felt incredibly dizzy. He wanted to be sick right then and there. His mind was awake, but his body wasn't. He panicked, where did they take Kiku? Where are his friends? Where is his brother? Ludwig understood why he was drugged, when he looked down, he could see the dark stone prison that kept his arms in place, if he were awake: he could break it easily. This is how he knew that the situation was becoming serious… He wasn't sure whether hallucinations were included in the side effects of whatever he'd been given when he heard the click of the door and watched it open. His vision was still blurry, as he watched multiple blurry figures move towards him, and talked amongst each other in what Ludwig could only render as complete gibberish.

A strong pain coursed through his body as the German was made to stand up, only to immediately fall again, however instead of landing on the painful floor; he landed on a soft surface.  
Suddenly Kiku remembered how Kiku had been taken away, sensing somewhat of a familiarity, and fear for what is in store for him, and wondered about the fate of his friend.


	16. Chapter 16

**PHASE FORTY**

Alfred and Ivan pushed the door open at the bottom of the stairs, only to find themselves standing in a dark control room, where screens lined the far wall and rows and rows of empty desks stood in formation.  
A man and a woman sat at the very front desks continued to talk to each other, unaware of the new company behind them.

Alfred and Ivan looked at each other, before falling to their hands and knees, staring at each other in confusion and panic, they communicated through frantic glares and terrible attempts at lip-reading. It was Ivan who started crawling towards the two, using the desks as a cover; Alfred copied him from the opposite row.

"Huh, I just got a text; the fire upstairs is out," The man announced.

"So, the boy in the Cool Chamber started that fire?" The woman asked.  
Alfred froze, realising that they were speaking about Arthur.  
"Is he going to go unpunished or…? Cause that is hundreds of thousands, if not a million dollars in damages…"

"Well, with the testing going on, he's going to have enough punishment,"  
Alfred gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to tackle them.  
The man smirked, "what we're going to get out of him will be reward enough."  
Alfred's eyes widened with shock, he glanced over at Ivan, to see that same expression being given back to him.

"If we get _anything_ , considering what happened with the last group," she sighed.  
Alfred and Ivan found themselves sitting directly behind the two, staring at each other in terror, still deciding what they were going to do… however, they knew that this would be the only way to get to their friends.  
At the same time, the two jumped from their hiding spot, Alfred grabbed the woman from behind and Ivan grabbed the man.  
Alfred watched Ivan for guidance, he followed the Russian as he placed his hand over the man's mouth, he hooked his arm around the man's throat before forcing him to the ground.  
Alfred felt the woman struggle beneath his strong grip, the young American kept glancing at Ivan for signs of when to stop, his grip momentarily weakened and she continued to struggle while her companion laid twitching in Ivan's grip.

"What are we going to do?" Alfred whispered.

"You're not going to like this at all. Are you going to let her get in the way of freeing Arthur? Freeing everyone?" Ivan explained.

"But, I can't just—"

"If she sounds the alarm, we are doomed, our friends are doomed…"

Alfred sighed, tightening his grip on the struggling woman, regretting the fact that the Russian was right.

 **PHASE FORTY-ONE**

A deep hum buzzed through Kiku's head, he tried to open his eyes; but he couldn't, he tried to move; but he couldn't. He felt as though he was floating in a pool of darkness, he was numb, scared and vulnerable. Voices chattered around him, slowly they became easier to understand, however, they only made him feel more alone.

"Send an invoice to admin, request authorisation to conduct surgery on subject K.H,"

"I don't think surgery is a good idea. Electric shocks already force his blades out; we don't need to cut him open just to watch the blade come out…"

"He has two of them, sure, scanning offers some insight, but we can't just _borrow_ one without someone speaking!"

"K.H is different from the others, his powers are genetic: familial, perhaps if we-"

"Researches told us that the genetic line that is carrying the sword gene is dying. Theoretically, he should be the last. We can't just let him have kids and hope for the best. We need to extract it."

"I'll ready the blood samples,"

"Also, prepare to extract bone-marrow."

"Bone marrow?"

"You heard me; we are going all out on this group of freaks, leave no stone unturned."

"But… the last group-"

"Sir, L.B is ready in lab C. He is heavily sedated and blood extraction has begun."

"Alright, as soon as you have his blood sample, take him back to his room."

"Are you going to take all of their marrows?"

"Only if their blood offers nothing. Either way, eventually all of them will end up on my operating table. We're going to find out exactly what they are, and how we can take it."

 **PHASE FORTY-TWO**

Alfred stared at the man and woman who laid at the feet of himself and Ivan, they both stared at their handwork in silence, in shock over how far they went.

"Come on," Alfred muttered, finally pulling himself away and focusing on the screens in front of him.  
It now when he finally had a good look at the multiple screens and realised that it was a live feed of security footage.  
He first noticed the Italians fastened to a wall  
Gilbert lying on a bed  
Francis sitting in a room, tied up and wearing a muzzle  
Yao submerged underwater in a large tank, wearing a face-mask  
Arthur standing in a straight-jacket, hurling abuse at whoever was there.  
One camera was focused on infrared-vision, allowing Alfred to see one red human-like shape amongst a mixture of blue and green, obviously preparing for Matthew's invisibility.  
However, four screens watched empty rooms.

"Oh my god… _Is Yao underwater?!"_ Ivan hissed.

"This is specific…" Alfred hissed, his eyes moving from screen to screen, "Hang on, where's Ludwig and Kiku?"  
Ivan joined Alfred in searching the screens.

"Oh no…" Ivan gasped, as Alfred began to look at the papers on the desk, noticing a large grey binder folder.  
Ivan watched his friends through the screens… taking note of the room numbers that flashed at the bottom of each screen, praying that they'd be close together.

"Oh my god, Ivan…" Alfred gasped, before showing him a page in the binder-file. Ivan found himself staring at a picture of Arthur. "Arthur Kirkland: Phyrokinesis. They have stats on him, and information about where he's from…"  
Ivan reached towards the American and turned the page, to reveal a picture of Feliciano, then again to see Lovino, then Gilbert, then Ludwig, then Alfred, then Yao, then Francis, then Matthew, then Ivan, and then Kiku.  
Alfred began to breath heavily with panic, "What the hell is going on here?"

Ivan looked back to the screens as Alfred kept turning the pages.

"Dude, holy fucking _shit,"_ Alfred gasped.

What…?" Ivan sighed, not even wanting to look.

"Roderich Edelstein: Sonic scream, Elizaveta Hedervary: levitation. Antonio Fernandez Carriedo: claws, Lukas Bondevik: exhale toxins. Mathias Køhler: smoke manipulation… Jesus Christ: there's so many pages here! There's a whole other-"

"Alfred?" Ivan asked, glancing at Alfred who stared intensely at one page, that showed the picture of a young girl with short blonde hair. He watched Alfred actually read the details that the page described, before frantically turning the pages backwards, checking the same part of each page, his face growing more and more desperate, before he suddenly slammed the folder back onto the desk and slid it in Ivan's direction.

"I'm gonna throw up…" Alfred gasped, his head falling into his hands.  
Ivan looked at the page that Alfred left on, quickly noticing the critical piece of information that Alfred had missed.

Ivan's eyes widened, and he too checked every profile of the people he didn't know.  
"Status: deceased."


	17. Chapter 17

**PHASE FORTY-THREE**

 _"Deceased…"_ Alfred hissed, slamming his fist against the desk, "they're fucking killing us! They're going to fucking kill us!"

"They can't have already started, right?" Ivan panicked, running his gloved hands through his hair, "but Ludwig and Kiku are gone! What have they done to them?!"

"Oh my gooood…" Alfred moaned angrily, "they were watching us from here when we were in the room together: we're a fucking _game_ to them!"

"We need to get them out _now,"_ Ivan hissed. "We can find their rooms and—"

"We can't just walk in there and get them out!" Alfred replied, "We can't just kill every guard we see, we need a plan!" Alfred waved his hand back; to gesture to the two bodies that still lay behind him. Ivan frowned, wondering whether Alfred had attacked his method of eliminating the threat.

"Well what else can we do _genius?!"_ Ivan spat.

 _"Don't start patronising me!"_ Alfred exclaimed, before finding himself staring intensely at the Russian, the panic induced by the situation had overcome them, and somewhat turned them against each other.

"How am I patronising you?!" Ivan asked, "I am saying that blood is going to be spilt if we are going to save _anyone_."

"That is necessary: I can give you that, but we are not blood thirsty monsters!" Alfred replied.

"You'll change that, you're so _ignorant_ …" Ivan muttered, gritting his teeth, "when the threat is there: you will see no other option! They've captured our friends and have killed others: why do they deserve our mercy!?"

"They can't all be guilty!" Alfred snapped, despite his strong exterior, he knew that his argument crumbled as the Russian continued.

"How can they not be guilty!? They could have killed Kiku and Ludwig! None of them are innocent!"

For a couple of moments after Ivan's final blow, the two stood in silence, contemplating their next move, Alfred pondered whether there was really a bloodless way out, whilst Ivan knew perfectly well that there was going to be no nice way to escape and save their friends.  
Ivan was the first to break the tense silence, "We shouldn't start fighting," he pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest, "There are more important things to worry about."

"Y-you're right," Alfred sighed, "well, it appears that this is the security hub, without this: they wouldn't be able to watch us."

"So we should take it away?" Ivan asked as he smiled at the American, enjoying the impending act of destruction, Alfred smiled too. He stepped back and picked up a chair. He stared at Arthur through the screen, as the Brit continued to stand before his guards, confined and angry like a cornered tiger.

"I'm coming, Arthur," he whispered under his breath, bracing himself to throw the chair at the screen, "Hang on."

 **PHASE FORTY-THREE**

That itch in the back of Francis' head worsened, but yet: he still refused to give into it: well aware that he was still reading the mind of the guard who stood near him.

However he could no longer deny his growing desperation to escape: he knew something was wrong, and that it was sinister and slowly coming towards him, knocking all of his new friends down in the process. He rolled his eyes upward as the itch grew unbearable, he needed to abuse this man's mind, he needed to take control and free himself. The man's inner voices buzzed through his ears like nails on a chalkboard.

Finally, Francis' head snapped forward, staring directly at the man, feeling a new surge of power overcome him.  
New thoughts of the guards panic when he noticed the mental intruder flowed through Francis' head, making the Frenchman tighten his mental grip over the guard's body.

 _Stand up straight,_ Francis commanded mentally, and was pleased to see his victim's posture straighten. This simple command was easily followed, far from what Francis wanted to do, but he knew that if he left his victim go now: the alarm would be raised.

He had to act on this new power now, or face never being able to use it again.

 _Hold onto your gun,_ Francis commanded, listening to his victim mentally cry and beg to have his body released, however it was a mercy that the Frenchman wasn't prepared to deliver.

The other guard finally noticed, and watched his companion tighten his grip on his gun and twitch.

 _Lift your gun forwards,_ Francis commanded, his victim lifted the gun in the other guard's direction, startling him. The man's hand shook as he mentally protested against Francis' commands, but yet he could not physically fight the Frenchman's mental hold over him.

"What are you doing?" The guard asked, unsure on how to determine his companion's actions, and whether their captive had anything to do with it. The guard looked at Francis, with a terrified and confused look in his eyes and raging through his mind.

 _Shot,_ Francis commanded, before suddenly, his victim unwillingly pulled the trigger. Francis watched and waiting for his victim's body to recover from that traumatising action, unwilling to lose his grip on him now.  
With a fresh gunshot wound to the chest, the guard fell to his knees, before landing to the ground: finally his mind became silent. A small pool of blood expanded around the guard's body, a sight that saddened the Frenchman, but yet he had accepted the fact that this was a necessary evil, in order to guarantee his escape.  
Francis' victim continued to mentally cry and scream, whilst his body remained perfectly still and his face was blank.

Francis proceeded to order his victim to come towards him, and remove the restraints that kept him fastened to his seat, and his arms bound together. The Frenchman stretched with relief at his newfound freedom as his victim worked at removing the muzzle that silenced him.

Francis sighed as he looked into the blank eyes of his victim, dreading his next mental command.  
"I'm so sorry…" Francis muttered, fighting the urge to cry, as his victim mentally begged for his release. "I'm so sorry…"

Francis closed his eyes, refusing to look at his victim, despite the fact that he couldn't block out the noises and screams that came from him, as he prepared his next mental command, overwhelmed with the regret.

 _Shoot._

The newly freed Francis stepped around the corpsed that lay around him. He carefully took the gun that sat in his victim's lifeless hand, and then the gun that belonged to his fallen colleague as well as a pair of keys, which he assumed belonged to the door that kept the Frenchman trapped in the room.

Francis couldn't bear to look back at his handiwork, refusing to give in to the temptation to feel some inkling of pride. Yes, he had thought for his freedom and one it; but two men fell as a cost, and dreaded the thought of imagining what else would have to be done.

 **Hi everyone! It's me again**

 **shit is about to get real.**

 **I just wanted to let everyone know that i've started a new story, it is a romantic tragedy that is (somewhat accurately) based off of the lives of Bonnie and Clyde, but is told from the perspective of Alfred and Arthur. So if anyone is interested, be sure to check it out.**

 **thank you for supporting freaks and i hope you all enjoy your day :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**PHASE FORTY-FIVE**

"So…" Alfred muttered, as the two stood in the elevator, waiting patiently to arrive at their underground destination. "Our plan?"

"We run into rooms that look like they hold our friends, we save whoever we can," Ivan repeated, Alfred nodded in response.

However, the American sighed whilst putting his hands into the pockets of his bomber-jacket, "It's so stupid… but there is nothing else we can do…"

"But… we aren't heroes…" Ivan pointed out.

Alfred looked at the Russian, only to see him staring down at him with those sharp and bright eyes, as though he were trying to say more with his eyes, rather than his words. Alfred glanced ahead, desperately trying to ignore him. Despite understanding completely that he was right, people weren't going to hand his friends over if he simply asked, or even threatened them. If he was going to get his friends back: he was going to have to take them.

The elevator doors opened to a reception area, filled with black couches, red rugs and bookshelves and TV, the area looked more like a dentists' reception, rather than the captors of their friends. Alfred was thankful to see no one behind the reception desk. On both sides of the long black desk, were two glass doors that led into separate hallways.  
They ran out of the elevator and towards the hallway to the right, hoping that it'd the best decision. The two men forced open the first door they saw, only for another office. This trend of empty offices only continued throughout the hallway, until they opened one more door, which revealed a dark staircase. The two felt like they had finally hit the jackpot as they ran down the concrete stairs, turning the sharp corners quickly only to reach the end and see another hallway.  
However, this hallway was far different from the one upstairs, the walls and floors were made of concrete and the two doors that sat on each side of the hallway were blue and beaten. They could see that this was far from the end, as the hallway turned in different directions, and became much more daunting for the pair.

 **PHASE FORTY-SIX**

Yao knew why they had placed him underwater, and that fact worried him greatly.

Many years ago, when the young man was simply a teenager, he had been practicing one of his famous electric acrobatic acts, this time; his bosses deemed it necessary to do it on a beam above a pool, where the other acrobats were cooling themselves from the boiling heat of summer.  
Yao balanced on the thick beam, before transferring into a handstand; he felt his electricity surge through the beam and release through his pointed feet, generating a show of lightning along his legs.  
Things only went wrong when he balanced himself on his one hand, and attempted to power a lightbulb with his free hand. He lost his balance and fell into the shallow pool beneath, all he could hear was the screams of the other acrobats, and a burning pain along his whole body. He began to shake uncontrollably as he sunk to the bottom of the pool, the pain only ended when his powers began to calm… only when he rose to the surface did he see that he had electrocuted some of the acrobats, and he was lucky that none of them died.  
It was then that he learned of the danger he posed around water, to not only others, but himself. Him landing in the water while his power in use was the equivalent of throwing a working toaster into a bathtub…

What worried him about the situation he was in now, was the fact that this is what his captors knew to do… he wondered that if they knew about that incident, how long had they been watching him, planning for the time when they'd approach his boss and offer to buy him from the circus.

Yao felt his hair sway as he shook his head, careful to not tamper with the mask that kept Yao connected to the oxygen tank that was fastened to his back. Yao couldn't move his arms as they had been fastened to his sides in the confines of a straight-jacket. His feet had been fastened together with some other contraption, and hooked to the bottom of the tank; Yao couldn't bend down far enough to check. He stared hopelessly at the area outside of his tank, noticing a small desk, a cabinet, and a gurney, Yao glanced to his side to see a staircase leading to the top of his tank. Yao assumed there was another viewing point from there, where they could get another view inside of his tank.

Suddenly there was a noise from outside of the tank, suddenly he glanced back to see the door to his area opening, and a familiar pair of people walked in.

Alfred and Ivan entered the area, glancing around. It was Ivan who noticed Yao first, he pointed to his friend. "Alfred!"

"Jesus Christ!" Alfred yelled as he and Ivan ran to the glass that separated them from Yao, they watched Yao's mouth move from inside of the mask, but couldn't make out what he was saying.

"I think he's happy to see us," Ivan pointed out, pressing his hand against the glass.

"He's hooked down, if I can get into the tank and un-hook him, we can carry him out and untie him," Alfred explained, pointing to the hook that fastened Yao to the floor of the tank. Alfred and Ivan ran up the staircase to walk onto a small ledge that ended directly into the pool, from above, the two could see the end of Yao's coal-black hair floating on the surface. Alfred first removed his bomber-jacket, and then his glasses, before sitting down to remove his shoes, after finally removing his shirt, the American jumped into the water, creating a large splash.

Ivan stepped back and avoided the water like a cat, well aware of the effects that water had on his body… instead he nervously watched Alfred's form move around Yao's under the water, until Alfred's head burst upwards from under the water, desperately gasping for air.

"I can't do it alone!" he gasped, as he swam back to the edge where Ivan stood. "We don't have much time, his oxygen tank is in the red! I think they'll come for him soon!"

"But…" Ivan gulped, feeling his body tighten with stress. "We can't leave him!"

"I need help freeing him!" Alfred pointed out. "I…"

"I'm not leaving him alone again!" Ivan hissed as he took off his coat and shirt, before removing his shoes, "I can't!"

"Ivan!" Alfred gasped as Ivan jumped into the water and swam, when Ivan's head rose to the surface, Alfred noticed the Russian's body shivering uncontrollably.

"W-What do w-e have to-to do?" Ivan asked.

"You hold him down, and I unhook him at the feet, he should float back up and we can take him out," Alfred explained, "Goddammit, Ivan… you shouldn't be in water; should you?"

"Never-mind me," Ivan hissed, before diving under the water and swimming towards Yao, who stared at him with wide eyes. Ivan pressed down on Yao's shoulders, pushing his feet towards the bottom of the tank, where Alfred swam down and unfastened the hook that kept Yao anchored to the bottom of the tank. Ivan could tell when Yao was freed, when he could no longer hold him down, Ivan grabbed onto Yao's body and pulled him towards the edge. Ivan gasped for air as he slowly began to feel the effects of water overcome his body, kicking his legs became difficult and his arm muscles tightened. He felt relief when he managed to push Yao out of the tank, and himself afterwards.

Alfred ran to the two and after pushing his hair out of his face, and putting his glasses back on, he began to work on undoing Yao's jacket, and removing the Chinaman's gas mask.

"Thank you," Yao gasped, as he stretched his arms.  
He glanced at Ivan to see the Russian lumbering around the staircase, barely able to move his muscles. Something was wrong.  
"Ivan?"  
Ivan had to turn his whole body in order to look at Yao, only to stumble back too far.  
"SHIT! IVAN!"  
Ivan finally lost control of himself and fell back, tumbling down the staircase and was left lying on the floor, frozen and unable to move.

Alfred and Yao ran down the stairs, being careful to not slip on the puddles of water around them. Alfred stopped halfway whilst Yao ran to Ivan's side.

"I knew you shouldn't have gone in!" Alfred yelled from the balcony, as Yao placed his hands on Ivan's bare chest, felling the sting of the layer of ice that had formed on the Russian's skin.

"Alfred, he's _freezing!"_ Yao cried as Alfred fell to his side, dressed and carrying Ivan's coat, shirt and shoes.

"SHIT!" Alfred hissed, attempting to cover Ivan's body with his coat to use it as a blanket. "Come on, man, don't do this!" he and ivan rubbed vigorously on the coat in an attempt to warm him, however, it only made the thick coat become damp and rough.

"This isn't going to work!"

"Can you do something?!" Alfred asked Yao.

"Are you crazy?!" Yao cried, cradling Ivan's shivering head, _"_ I'd kill him! I'm like a toaster in a bathtub!"

"It's ok, don't cry, we'll fix him…" Alfred muttered.

 _"I'm not crying!"_ Yao hissed, before wheezing, upset that the American was right… his vision became blurry as he felt his eyes begin to gather tears. "I can't help him…"

Alfred's eyes widened as he immediately stood up, "I know someone who can. I need to get Arthur!"

Yao's head shot up with the realisation, remembering the Brit who could manipulate fire, "That's right! We need Arthur, please… you need to find him. I'll protect Ivan."

Alfred nodded, perfectly understanding the fact that Ivan couldn't be left alone in such a vulnerable state. He turned his back to leave the room, but he heard Ivan groan something, he looked back at Yao to only see the Chinaman staring down at Ivan before looking up at Alfred.

"He just said: _don't be a hero."_

Alfred nodded, as he held the door open for himself, "Got it."


	19. Chapter 19

**PHASE FORTY-SEVEN**

Francis feared that his anxiety would overcome him, despite hearing no signs of other life around him, he waited for a guard to jump out of nowhere and shoot him dead… The Frenchman clutched harder on the heavy weapon, careful to not pull the trigger. He had been wandering down what felt like the same hallway for a couple of minutes, it felt as though it went on forever.

Suddenly, he heard a thud, coming from the room he stood across from, the blue door stood alone on the wall; with only a small porthole as a window into the room. Francis walked up to the door and peered inside, to only see an empty bedroom, until a figure suddenly appeared in the centre of the room and ran towards the door.

"Mathieu!" Francis gasped, twisting the doorknob, but failing to open it. He looked back through the porthole to see the terrified Canadian staring at him.  
Francis glanced at the ring of keys he had taken from his guard, and checked multiple keys on the keyhole, until eventually he heard a _click_.

"Francis!" Matthew cried, jumping into the Frenchman for a hug as soon as the door opened, "thank god! Thank god!"

"It's ok, we're going to get out of here," Francis promised, "come on; we need to keep moving."  
Matthew nodded, walking beside the Frenchman.  
"I suggest you stay invisible…" Francis pointed out, "just in case…"

Matthew looked away from Francis, understanding perfectly well why he should remain invisible, but yet… he didn't want Francis to stand alone.

"I'm ok… thanks…" Matthew replied.

"I understand what you're trying to do," Francis explained, glancing at the Canadian with a more serious glare, "but please, do this for me."

Matthew looked away, biting his lip until he gave in, and allowed himself to disappear from sight.

"Thank you for getting me out…" Matthew thanked, "what did they do to you?"

"They had me in a room like that, tied down and muzzled, with guards," Francis explained.

"Whoa, then how'd you get out?" Matthew asked.  
Francis didn't reply with words, but instead showed the Canadian the gun he had taken. Matthew gasped, Francis couldn't see his face, but his thoughts were enough to hurt.

"Please, don't be scared of me. I had to." Francis murmured.

"I'm not, I get it." Matthew pointed out, "read my mind, you know this: I'm not going to be afraid of you."

Francis smiled weakly, "I guess I do."  
Despite him being invisible, Francis could hear Matthew moving across the hallway, peering into the porthole of every room available.  
"They must have spread us all out, no one should be close to us.

"Francis!" Matthew gasped, suddenly becoming visible in front of the door to the left of Francis. "It's Gilbert!"

"Huh?" Francis asked as he peered over Matthew to glance into the porthole. They saw the pale German lying on the white bed that sat against the white wall; he appeared to be looking at a piece of paper. Francis knocked in the window, catching Gilbert's attention; Gilbert glanced at the door, before jumping off of the bed and running to them, holding his hands up.

Francis frowned, listen to the German mentally panicked.

"He's not going to come out," Francis gasped.

Matthew looked into the porthole and into Gilbert's sad eyes, "why not?"

Before Francis could answer, Gilbert pressed the piece of paper on the glass, revealing a picture of Ludwig; he was blinded by a black cloth, and was trapped in somewhat of a concrete-jacket. The picture became worrying when they noticed two guards standing by Ludwig's sides, armed with large guns. Gilbert turned the picture over and pressed the other side of the paper against the glass, revealing in handwriting _'don't move.'_

"They're threatening him." Matthew concluded and Francis nodded in response.

"They know him too well…" Francis explained, "Ludwig is the only family he has left, and he's going to be trapped if it means keeping him safe…"

"But he can save Ludwig if he comes with us!" Matthew pointed out, Francis sighed before pulling the Canadian away from the door.  
Francis could hear Gilbert mentally cry, and knew that there was no way he or Matthew could convince him to leave, the best action they could take was to find and save Ludwig, only then would Gilbert feel confident in acting.

"He's not going to come until we have Ludwig," Francis pointed out.

"But…"

"We'll come back for him," Francis promised, patting the Canadian on the head, "now please, go invisible again."  
Despite having become invisible, Francis still held onto the Canadian's arm as they continued to walk down the hallway.

 **PHASE FORTY-EIGHT**

Arthur stared at his guards, as the silence grew to haunt him. He couldn't stand the way that they just stood there, completely ignoring his presence.

"Don't ignore me!" He cried out again, they continued to ignore him. "I'm going to get out! Huh, what are you going to say about that, asshole?! I'm going to burn you alive!" Arthur focused on the guard whom earlier took pleasure at teasing him. "Come on, dickhead! Throw your worst at me! Crush my hope again; give me something!"  
Arthur's anxiety deepened, as a tight pain began in his stomach and his heart began to ache, as the reality of the situation dawned upon him. It was as if he was back in the hospital where his nightmares were born. The shocking pains began again inside of his head, and the memories of being forced to lie down and gagged as his doctors shocked him, he relived it again as he began to shake, feeling his arms and stomach burn.  
Arthur began to moan loudly as he banged the back of his head on the wall, anything to shake away the shocks he breathed in the smoke that escaped through the gaps between the jacket and his neck. He felt his power intensify; however, the flame wasn't burning on his arms: it was burning inside of him. Arthur began to cry out in a new kind of pain, he was burning.

Arthur needed to release it: the Brit lunged forward and screamed, however: a bright flame escaped his lips and reached out to a metre. Arthur paused to take in a breath, before breathing out powerful flames like a dragon. As Arthur waved his head, the flames moved with him, effectively burning the walls, and the floor, the Brit had become an effective flame-thrower.  
When the flames finally calmed down, Arthur fell to his knees and wheezed with exhaustion, feeling his throat burn.

The guards stood before them in complete shock.  
"Fuck."

"I'll go get a muzzle…" one guard said, before he ran out.  
Finally alone, the same guard whom earlier took pleasure in taunting Arthur began to clap.

"Wow…" he chuckled as he took a couple of steps towards Arthur. "You are a dragon..."

"Don't come any closer, or I'll do it again!" Arthur hissed, his voice was coarse from the strain his outburst had on him.

"You couldn't, look at you, you can barely keep your head up to look at me." The guard pointed out, "you freaks just keep on getting better. I surely don't hope you break quickly."

"Break…?"

"Yeah, soon men in white coats are going to come for you, first they'll knock you out with anaesthesia, lay you on a table, cut you open and see what's inside. Now that we know that you can do this: they have a new place to look at." Arthur's eyes widened with fear and his heart sank from the weight of his anxiety as the guards description worsened. "Then they'll stitch you back up and bring you back here and the whole process repeats itself over and over: until they get what they want, or you die, whichever comes first."

"I'll-"

"I think your… fourth on the list… I'm surprised you weren't first: after that crap you pulled on level three." The guard pondered, "So you should have nearly an hour left. But not matter what: eventually all of you will end up on the doctors table, even the two that escaped."

"Escaped!" Arthur gasped, as the guard froze: regretting what he had said, until his lips curved back into that sinister smile that chilled Arthur's burning body.

"Yeah. Two got away, we'll find them though their cells are ready for them and the doctors are eager to take a look."

"No matter who they are, they're going to get away…" Arthur grumbled, "They will fight and get away!"

"You don't want them to come back for you?" The guard asked, "Even that one who's hand you held? That was rather cute."  
Arthur frowned and looked away, refusing to give his captor any more clues.  
"Was he American? The telekinetic?"  
Arthur stayed silent.  
"Oh, it so was."

Arthur finally glared back at his captor, as the clumsily rose to his feet, "leave him out of this."

"I've heard things about his cell... I wonder where he is on the list... I think he may be right after you. I wonder if you'll be in the waiting room together."  
Arthur tried to hide his anxiety behind an intense stare, inside he was cursing; cursing that it wasn't Alfred who'd escaped.

"Who did escape?" Arthur asked.

"Not telling." The guard teased. "I may talk a lot, but I'm not stupid."

"But I thought only stupid people played with fire."

 _"Ooooh, need some ice for that burn?"_ A new voice announced the guard looked back in shock as Arthur smiled; Alfred ran at the guard and punched him before he could lift his gun. The guard pushed the American away before running behind Arthur, pressing the Brit's back into him as he held his gun against Arthur's throat.

"You came back…" the guard muttered.

"Came back?" Arthur gasped, speaking to the guard, but staring at Alfred, "you lied to me."

The guard ignored Arthur, "Jones, face the wall with your hands up now!"  
Alfred raised his hands and stepped back, practically complying with the guard, regretting the fact that he had spoken up. He watched Arthur's face change as he began to obey, he looked devastated… Alfred couldn't stand it, he was here to save him, but yet he's bending to the will of a guard with a gun. He could already hear Ivan judging him, another voice inside of his head cried for him to act: it was Arthur… Alfred could see Arthur begging to be saved, begging to be free again.  
Alfred froze where he stood, staring at the guard, before Alfred pushed forward, manipulating his power to push the guard back, away from Arthur. Arthur turned around to face the guard, before releasing a flame from his mouth, engulfing the guard in the Brit's powerful flames.

Alfred stood with his mouth hanging open, both shocked and terrified at Arthur's ability, and the terrible screams of pain that came from the guard shook Alfred to his very core.

Finally, Arthur stopped, leaving the guard lying on the floor, wheezing and writhing in the pain of being burned. Arthur looked at Alfred and smiled, "you came back."

"Heh…" Alfred chuckled, "sorry it took so long."

"Come on," Arthur beckoned, turning his back to Alfred, "get me out of this thing."  
Alfred tugged and pulled at the cloth that kept Arthur bound, slowly he managed to make his way through the though fabric, even resorting to using his teeth to pull at the ties that kept Arthur's straight-jacket in place.  
"We need to hurry; we don't know when the second guard will return."  
Eventually, Alfred had torn apart the knots that kept Arthur bound to his jacket, the Brit thrust his arms outward, tearing the jacket off of his back, before sliding it off of his arms and dropping it to the ground, leaving Arthur standing only in his pants and a black t-shirt. Arthur chuckled as he kicked the jacket to the other end of the room.

"We need to go now…" Arthur muttered, before walking back to Alfred, "but before we do."

"Arthur, I-"  
Alfred was interrupted when the Brit tugged on the collar of his bomber jacket, pulling his head down to meet Arthurs, where he embraced him with a sweet kiss. Despite the American closing his eyes and accepting Arthur's warm lips, his heartbeat raced out of control.  
Arthur was extremely warm, especially on his lips, the kiss intensified as Alfred hunted for more warmth, and Alfred dug his hands on the back of Arthur's neck, pulling him closer.  
Separating for air, they rubbed noses together as Alfred sighed loudly; Arthur smiled as he rubbed Alfred's jaw with his warm hands.

It was then that Alfred suddenly remembered his friend's perilous situation at the hands of his own ice, "Oh shit, Ivan!"

 _"What!?"_ Arthur spat, pulling himself away from Alfred with anger.

"NO! NO!" Alfred exclaimed, shaking his hands in defence, "he needs your help!"

Arthur frowned, "Ahh, ok."

"Don't worry, I'll explain on the way."

"HALT!" A new voice announced, as the Alfred and Arthur looked to the door to see that the other guard had returned, carrying the muzzle intended for Arthur and a gun in his other hand.  
Before the guard could announce his orders, Alfred pulled him in with his telekinetic force. The man flew forward before falling to the floor at the couple's feet, before flying towards the wall.  
Alfred hesitated, still trying to remember Ivan's words, he's not a hero and he shouldn't be merciful…  
However, his moment of hesitation gave the guard enough time to lift his gun and shot.  
Alfred closed his eyes and reached out with his hand bracing himself for the pain; however, after a couple of seconds, he opened his eyes to see the small bullet hovering in front of the palm of his hand.

"Did you know you could do that?" Arthur asked.

"No." Alfred answered.

"None of you know what you can do…" The guard groaned, "You're all dangerous…"

"Alfred, it's his bullet. I say you return it to him. Then you can show me Ivan," Arthur suggested.

"YOU LITTLE-"  
Fearing another attack, Alfred closed his eyes and swung his hand, releasing the bullet.  
He didn't need to see the impact: the noise of the bullet hitting the guard was sickening enough for the American.

"It's ok…" Arthur cooed, rubbing the American's cheek, "You saved me, you're doing a good thing." Alfred opened his eyes again when he felt Arthur's warm kiss again, and was left lingering on when Arthur parted. "Now show me what's wrong with Ivan."


	20. Chapter 20

**PHASE FORTY-NINE**

A quiet humming noise buzzed through Kiku's head, forcing him back into consciousness and pulling him away from the numbness of his sleep. He opened his eyes only to be confronted by a powerful white light, which only caused his vision to blur further as he looked around. He was lying on a white bed, alone inside of the bright room, squinting; Kiku attempted to sit up, only to feel an excruciating pain roar throughout the right side of his body, forcing him to lie back down and wallow in the pain until it subsided.  
Something was wrong, they did something to him… and he dreaded figuring out what it was.

Kiku tilted his head to look at his body, quickly noticing his right arm was hooked into the white fabric sling, stained with blood that seeped through the fabric.

Suddenly, he heard the doorknob into his prison wiggle open, quickly he relaxed and closed his eyes, determined to eavesdrop on his visitors. He heard the door open and two footsteps walk in, but they stopped at the foot of his bed.

"I take it that the operation was a success?" One asked.

"Of course, it came right out." The other replied, Kiku resisted the urge to move or react; quickly figuring out just what those monsters had done to him. "His blade cracked upon removal, but other than that: perfect quality."

"As soon as things get back to normal and the evacuation is cleared, I'll have the others take a look at it and find out what it's made of."

"But, there's one thing that interested me."

"Hm?"

"It popped out of a socket, leaving a hole with a tiny piece of blade left over in the bone, suggesting that the blade can grow back."

"It is obvious that his blades can grow with him, his mother's blades weren't much longer than his. If his blade was to grow back, a good chance to measure growth rate."

"Don't get too excited, it's _if_ his blade does return."

"Whatever, his stitches should heal with time, but the scar won't."

"When will he wake up?"

"In at least an hour. That should give us enough time to place L.B into work and collect F.V-"

"About that… the operation on L.B has being postponed, there's been a complication. So preparation for the collection of F.V has begun early."

"What? Why was this done without my authorisation?"

"Come on, I'll show you: we've truly gotten out work cut out for us with this lot."  
Kiku opened his eyes again when he heard the door shut behind the intruders. He stared down at his right arm with tears blurring his vision and anxiety swelling his throat, _they took the blade_. As he thought about this more, the more he felt that his body was uneven, he was violated and his heritage has been tarnished…  
 _He wanted to make them pay…._

 **PHASE FIFTY**

"LET HIM GO!"

Francis and Matthew froze, analysing where the noise had come from, only to glance around a corner and see that one of the blue doors was opened.  
They crept towards the door by keeping their backs against the wall, cautious to watch for anyone else.  
It was Matthew who could freely look inside, and what he saw shocked him.

Lovino stood against the wall, fastened by his arms and legs, crying and furiously vibrating against the metal plated that kept him still. He cried over Feliciano, whom was lying in a gurney in front of another group of metal plates that were fastened against the wall, however unlike Lovino's: they were open and the occupant was gone.  
Feliciano laid in the gurney with a deathly stillness, with an anaesthesia mask fastened over this mouth and nose.  
There were two men in the room, both were dressed in white coats and armed with guns, one was tending to Feliciano, whilst the other was inspecting Lovino's fastening.

"Don't ignore me!" Lovino spat, "Don't take him away! Take me instead! Take me instead!"

Despite reacting to the Italian's words by momentarily freezing, they continued to work and continued to ignore the older Italians pleas.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" A new voice snapped, everyone froze and looked to the door to see Francis standing there, with his gun raised and aiming at the doctor who stood by the unconscious Feliciano.

"Shit!" One guard snapped as he rose his gun, only to be smacked in the face and knocked over by an invisible force. With his faith in Matthew, Francis walked towards the doctor who stood by Feliciano, with his gun still at the ready.  
Unlike his partner who suffered at the rage of the invisible Canadian, this doctor looked terrified, and Francis dreaded thinking about what he was about to do.

Francis focussed himself on the man who stood before him, finding it significantly easier to give into the itch that possessed him earlier, almost instantly, the doctor noticed the change and mentally began to panic and hopelessly fight against Francis' powerful mental hold over his body.

 _"_ _Wake up Feliciano."_ Francis ordered.

Matthew watched as his victim desperately shook his head, looking for his attacker, Matthew took the chance to creep behind him and jump onto his back, smashing the doctor's shoulder with his fist and pinching the skin on his neck and face. Suddenly, the doctor grabbed Matthew and threw him away, Matthew slammed against the wall and crashed to the floor. With fear, Matthew looked at the floor to see his own hands, the realisation that his cover was gone loomed over him as he heard the doctor click his gun.

 _BANG!_

Matthew looked up to watch the doctor collapse to the floor with a horrendous wound brandishing the back of his head. Francis stood behind him and beside Feliciano, holding his gun at the ready, Matthew stood up slowly, staring at Francis with a shimmer of insecurity within his bright eyes.

"I wasn't going to let his blood be on your hands." Francis answered before returning his attention back to the doctor who fixed Feliciano's oxygen supply.

"You… you got out…" Lovino gasped. Matthew noticed a power drill on the floor beside Lovino's trap, quickly he ran to it and began to work on unscrewing the screws that kept Lovino fastened to the wall.

"We're going to get everyone out," Matthew promised, "What were they going to do?"

"They just came in and did this to Feliciano, they were looking at his muscles, making predictions and tracing where they were going to cut!" Lovino panicked.

"They were going to operate…" Francis pointed out, still staring at his mental victim. "They had to get Feliciano early…"

"Yes! They mentioned that! They said something about not finding a scalpel big enough for L.B!" Lovino pointed out, waving his newly freed arm.

Matthew gasped, "Francis…"

"They went to operate on Feliciano because something went wrong with the operation on Ludwig…" Francis explained.

"If they're operating on Ludwig then…" Matthew muttered, before widening his eyes with shock and realisation. "They're lying to Gilbert."


	21. Chapter 21

**PHASE FIFTY-ONE**

Ludwig rocked his head back and forward, feeling the world spin around him. He knew that he was under some kind of drug, he couldn't move, he couldn't use his strength to break out of his restraints. However: he could feel it… he felt the sharp knives and scalpels scrape against his skin, and he could hear the doctor's curse when they failed to cut him.

"Fucking hell! This is a complete failure, he's starting to wake up and our strongest scalpel can't even scratch him!" The doctor hissed, slamming the metal scalpel onto a metal tray, shaking the trolley from the force. "We'll need to push forward the other operations even more now! Is F.V secure?"

"They're collecting him now."

"Any word from security?"

"I haven't heard an—"

"Well fucking hell, have someone go and check on them!"

"Everyone who's here is either guarding or performing surgery. The telecommunications and internet are out because of the fire set by A.K."

"I can't wait to have that shit on my table; I had a lot of important stuff up there. In fact… He's number four isn't he?"

"Yes, sir."

"Have him prepped for surgery; he'll go under right after the Italian. How's K.H?"

"Still in recovery, he hasn't woken yet."

"As soon as he stands: take him to his isolation cell and run a routine check on all of them."

"Sir… are you ok?"

"Those two that are missing are getting on my nerves… the militia hasn't come back yet… I'd understand that if it was the Italians, who ran away, but it was the American and Russian… they shouldn't have gone too far. I'm honestly still angry that they made it past the fog."

"Don't worry, sir, I'm sure they're on their way back with them now."

"They fucking better be."

Ludwig grumbled something incoherently, slowly regaining some form of consciousness; he rolled his eyes as he saw a woman walk by him and cup his head in her hands, keeping him still.  
"He's dilating, he's waking up."

"Get him back into his restraints and take him back to his room, and give him another dose: just for good measure."

"Yes, sir."

"Fucking hell, he's going to destroy my drug-supply…" the doctor mumbled, "And I'm going to need a fucking butcher knife if I'm going to look past this skin."  
Ludwig's face tensed with fear, visualising the horrible image that the doctor implied.

"He can hear you." The woman cautioned, only for the doctors chuckle to echo through the operating theatre.

"I know."

 **PHASE FIFTY-TWO**

Feliciano grumbled and groaned as he felt hands on his back push him to sit up, he felt the cool breeze of fresh oxygen pass through his lungs, instantly making him more alert. His vision blurred, in reaction to the powerful light as his head spun.

"Feli, can you hear me?" A familiar voice asked, the Italian opened his eyes to see a familiar pair of narrow green eyes staring at him.

"Lovi?" Feliciano asked, lazily blinking and registering what was around him, and what just happened, he frowned as he pulled the oxygen mask off of his face, and welcoming in the fresh air. "What?"

"You're being rescued," Francis chirped, as he and Lovino helped him out of the gurney, with Lovino letting Feliciano use him as a crutch, as the Italian slowly regained the movement within his legs.

"They didn't take me?"

"They couldn't even make it out of the room." Lovino chuckled, overwhelmed with joy; Feliciano pulled his brother in for a tight hug.

"Come on, we need to hurry. They could be taking Gilbert next," Matthew pointed out. "If you guys need some time I can—"

"You're not going alone." Francis pointed out, "We need to all stick together; with no communication between us, splitting up is a terrible choice. We could get caught and no one would know."

"Right…" Matthew sighed.

Suddenly the room quietened and tensed as Francis stared at his mental victim, the doctor who still stood by the gurney with a blank look on his face. However, only Francis could hear the man's anguish and pain, as well as pleas to let him go unharmed: but… he and Francis both knew that this wasn't a possibility.  
With another strong command, Francis closed his eyes as he heard the man lift his gun, before pressing it to his head, and pulling the trigger.  
Feliciano screamed in fright and clutched onto his brother's arm, tears began to form in the younger Italians eyes as he begged his brother to explain why that just happened.

Lovino looked to the Frenchman for some kind of guidance, desperate to find a way to explain why a man just killed himself, and yet not villainise the Frenchman.

Nodding, Francis answered, "Feliciano, I learnt a new skill that allows me to control someone else's body."

"So you…?" Feliciano gasped.

"Yes. I did. And it is a thing that I am going to live with for the rest of my life. I hope that you can forgive me, we are in a serious situation here."

Despite not replying, Francis knew that Feliciano understood perfectly well.

"Right. Feliciano; we need to explain a couple of things first." Francis pointed out as the small group ran out of the room, with Lovino managing to keep at an easy pace for his recovering brother to keep up at.

"We need to get Gilbert, because he's trapped in a room and is staying there because he believes that if he doesn't move: those doctors aren't going to hurt Ludwig." Matthew explained, "However, we found out that they were planning to operate on Ludwig so…"

"Ok…" Feliciano muttered, "Then we go and save Ludwig?"

"Yes, we do." Francis promised, "We're not going without him, without anyone."

"Good…" Feliciano mumbled.

"HERE!" Matthew pointed out, appearing in front of a door, and staring into the porthole, "Gilbert!" Gilbert appeared on the other side of the glass, staring at the group on the other side with a terrified and confused face, as though he wasn't sure to fear the worst, or expect the best. "Come out! They're lying!"

Gilbert mouthed something, however, the sound failed to make it through the door.  
Francis pushed himself to the front and pressed his gun against the keyhole, "We don't have time for this!"  
Francis pulled the trigger, and shot a bullet through the wood above the keyhole, effectively making a hole in the door.  
Matthew bent before the hole before talking.

"They're lying to you! They're going to operate on Ludwig!" Matthew explained.  
Suddenly, a black mist appeared behind the group, before Gilbert emerged from that mist and stared at the group with furious eyes.

"They're … doing … _what?"_

"They're liars." Francis announced, "They're operating on us all as a means to find out what gives us our power and how it can be replicated. Ludwig was one of the first on the list. I take it that wasn't a part of your agreement, non?"

"No way in hell." Gilbert grumbled, "I will destroy them all."

Matthew smirked, allowing a new awakening of confidence to flow through him and show itself within his eyes, "Glad to have you on board."


	22. Chapter 22

**PHASE FIFTY-THREE**

"You knew this would happen, didn't you?" Yao asked as he pressed his hand onto Ivan's forehead, assessing his dropping temperature. "You knew this, and you still jumped in to get me out…"  
Ivan's eyes remained closed, triggering Yao to question whether he could still hear him, which only panicked Yao more.  
"Can you still hear me? Arthur and Alfred should be back soon."  
Yao frowned when Ivan gave no sign of still being able to hear him, Yao tightened his hands into fists as he cursed under his breath.  
The ice that covered Ivan's pale skin left his skin with a shimmer in the bright lights, and patches of frost formed in the corners of his lips, his nose and his eyelids.  
Yao felt the locks of his hair, and felt his face, realising that he had begun to dry and he should be safe to use his powers again soon, however, as Ivan's head rested in his lap: Yao's cold legs could not dry.  
Yao whimpered, noticing that Ivan's frozen body had gotten worse since he last assessed it, as the glimmers of frost had intensified and spread to the Russians cheeks. "Please… hurry…"

Suddenly the door swung open, Yao looked up hopefully as he expected to see Alfred and Arthur, however.

"Stand up! Now!" A man commanded, sending chills down Yao's spine. Yao watched as a guard stood at the doorway, armed with a Taser, Yao was thankful that the guard wasn't properly armed to kill him, however the Taser still proved as a threat while Yao and Ivan were still wet and vulnerable.  
However, Yao could not allow himself the show this fear. He rose to his feet and positioned his hands to strike, staring at the visibly anxious guard. Yao knew that he couldn't use his powers, he wasn't ready to risk electrocuting himself or for the electrical current to reach Ivan.  
But, he was still a master acrobat and could at least act like he was dangerous.

"Attack me, I dare you!" Yao hissed, bracing himself, acting as though he were about to attack, a move he used to often do before a show began, in a way to install fear in his audience. The guard tensed and jumped in fear as the door closed behind him, Yao took this as a chance to jump at the guard leaping towards the door. Yao knew that despite the danger, he couldn't allow the guard to escape: because he'd only come back with more.

"Please, I'm sorry!" the guard panicked as he backed himself towards the stairs, bracing himself. Suddenly the guard pulled a knife from a holder attached to his belt, before lunging at Yao. Instead of running, Yao turned away in a cartwheel, before himself pouncing at his attacker, careful to avoid the knife.

It was as though he was back in the circus again, artistically and swiftly, his body moved in different directions as he performed his most dangerous act: without the help of his powers. His legs and arms smacked his attacker and threw him across the room, despite the lack of electricity, the attacker was still terrified.  
Yao acted as though he was back in the circus, where he would defy death every single night as he flipped in the air and balanced at impossible heights to impress an audience. He avoided the guard's swings with poise and grace, as well as kept his distance through flawless backflips and cartwheels. He could hear his imaginary audience gasp in shock and amazement: and yet: he hadn't even used his powers yet.

The guard ran up the stairs in a desperate attempt to get away from Yao, however Yao only followed him. The guard stood so close to the edge of the tank, the bottom of his shoes were covered in water.

Suddenly, he raised his Taser and pointed it at Yao, who froze where he stood. Yao attempted to assess whether his body was dry enough to be considered safe to handle electricity, and whether he could do anything to prevent or counter this attack.

However, before he could determine this, the guard pressed on the trigger and shot the needles at Yao. The needles pierced his forearm in a sharp prick of pain, and Yao could feel the electricity travel through the thin wire that connected the needles to the generator within the gun. The electricity surged through Yao's body like a breeze of fresh air, cleansing Yao of his anxiety and fears. Yao snatched the wires and released the electricity through his hands, sending the shock back through the wire and out of the gun. Yao watched as the guard began to shake and spasm violently as he was electrocuted, and his eyes rolled upwards and his screams became more and more distorted by the muscle spasms. Yao quickly ended the shock and pulled the needles out of his arm, as the guard stopped shaking and stood motionless at the edge of the balcony and the tank, as Yao watched, the man fell backwards and landed in the water. Yao sighed, however he didn't regret his actions, for he was regretting the fact that there was no other option for the guard, whom was simply doing his job.

"YAO! IVAN!" A familiar voice cried as the door swung open once again, and two familiar figures ran into the room. "I have Arthur!"

"It took you long enough!" Yao hissed as he ran down the stairs, whilst Alfred showed Arthur where Ivan laid.  
Arthur gasped at the state of the Russian, whom looked as though he were a statue whom was left outside during the cold, covered in small layers of frost and ice.

"Well I'm here now." Arthur pointed out as he dropped to his knees by Ivan's head, hovering his hands over the Russian's face. "I'll have to thaw him out… This'll be difficult; I don't want to cook him."

"Anything would help him, he's gotten so much worse," Yao pointed out as Arthur removed the coat that had been used as a blanket to cover Ivan's torso, revealing a frozen body beneath it, covered in a second skin made of frost and ice.

"Yao…" Alfred muttered, as he stood beside Arthur, but stared at the tank where the body of the guard began to sink. Yao stood beside him and stared at the sinking corpse.

"I had no other option," Yao pointed out.

"No, I get it. I get it. Some things need to be done; our lives are at stake here." Alfred concluded, crossing his arms over his chest. Yao stared at the American, sympathetic of Alfred's struggle to fight his own values in the situation.

Suddenly, Arthur's arms became engulfed in flames, as he hovered them over the frozen Russian.  
"I don't know how long this will take me, I'm going to start lightly; just in case. I've thawed things before, but never a person."

"Just do your best…" Alfred muttered as he patted the top of Arthur's head, feeling the warmth radiate from the Brit.  
The flames on Arthur's arms intensified as the layers of ice visibly melted off of Ivan's body, creating a small puddle around the group, wetting everybody's feet.

Suddenly, Ivan shot up and screamed, his eyes opening to reveal a layer of ice covering his eyes. Alfred pushed Arthur back as large spikes of ice formed out of the puddle, creating a floor of spikes around the Russian.  
The trio stared in shock as Ivan stopped screaming and sat up quietly; he closed his eyes and tensed his face. Ivan opened his eyes again, only for them to be back to normal, he looked around before seeing Alfred, Arthur and Yao staring at him, and the ice-spikes that surrounded him.

Ivan's eyes widened when he saw the extent of the ice spikes that surrounded him, "I didn't know I could do that…"

"Great, you're back," Alfred chuckled as Ivan rose from the ground.

"Now we just need to find everyone else," Arthur pointed out, "I was told that everyone is put in a different room, and one by one they're going to be taken to surgery and looked at, we need to find this operating room and destroy it before they can take anyone."

"Heh… We've been made to feel like monsters our whole lives," Alfred pointed out, "When they were the monsters all along…"


	23. Chapter 23

**PHASE FIFTY-FOUR**

"We need to talk."

Alfred glanced over at the Brit, whose walking pace slowed, allowing Ivan and Yao to walk ahead, Alfred sighed, knowing what he wanted to talk about. "Yeah…"

"About earlier, when I…" Arthur stuttered, crossing his arms over his chest, his cheeks flushing with a deep red hue, "kissed…"

"Yeah…" Alfred muttered, having no idea what else to say; dreading what was to come.

"I just wanted to point out, I was acting on impulse. I was full of adrenaline from my fire; I let the moment overcome me… I…"

"You regret it?" Alfred asked nervously, feeling his throat tighten with anxiety.

"I regret nothing," Arthur answered, "I learned to never regret anything, I can't allow myself to regret, otherwise I will hate myself… Look, just don't get too comfortable around me; it's not worth the trouble. Besides, the second this is over: I'm gone."

"Please, I feel like I've finally met people who I can actually be myself with… after what happened to me: everyone has either left me or forced me to leave... I don't want to go through that again, not with you."

"But if I stay things will only get harder. You don't know a thing about me; I'm dangerous, more likely to engage in risky behaviours, volatile, paranoid. I'm too much for some people. I don't want to go through…" Arthur muttered, before shutting himself down, feeling the violent shocks rock through his arms as his heart began to crumble under the pressure of Alfred's heartbroken stare. "I don't understand how you can keep so positive."

"Because sometimes hope is the only thing I have. What happened to yours?" Alfred asked, "Why do you…?"

"Five years ago, while I was… I used to… _URH!_ " Arthur muttered, before picking up his walking speed, leaving Alfred behind him. _"Just leave it and me alone, before I hurt you. I'm sorry for what I did."_

"Hang on!" Alfred called, running to catch up with Arthur, "Just give us a chance, we've all been through terrible things, and some of us still need to learn that shutting ourselves away from the world isn't going to fix it."  
Arthur stared at the American who griped his arm with a shaking hand, unsure of how to respond.  
"I don't know what happened to you, but I know that it was unfair and terrible, that seems to be a theme within our group, and together we can learn how to fix the damage. Finding peace with yourself is hard to do alone, I found peace with myself after what I did through the help I got, so let me try to help you. Just give us, or give me a chance. I forgive you for that kiss; just don't be so quick to run away."

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Yao asked as he and Ivan looked back to stare at the American and the Brit.

"Nothing." Alfred and Arthur exclaimed together, before Arthur pulled his arm out of Alfred's grip.

"Right." Ivan chuckled.

"It doesn't matter," Arthur pointed out as he sped up to catch up with Ivan and Yao, "So our plan is to just walk around and find the others?"

"And kill any guard or doctor in sight," Ivan grumbled.

"I'm not complaining about that," Arthur agreed.

Suddenly, the hallway erupted with noises of people talking, causing the group to freeze and brace themselves for a fight as the voices grew closer. Bracing themselves for a fight, they crept to the wall and hid themselves by the corner; their arms were ready for the fight.  
However, the group had to stop themselves from pouncing when a familiar face walked around the corner.

"FELICIANO!" Alfred called as the Italian jumped back with fright, only to bump into Gilbert and Matthew.

"You got out too!" Lovino exclaimed.

"All of us!" Yao pointed out when he saw Francis turn the corner.

"Not all of us…" Francis sighed, "Kiku and Ludwig are somewhere else, taken for surgery."

At the word surgery, Arthur's eyes widened, "first and second on the list…"

"Exactly, there was a role order for everyone to end up on the operating table, they have to have noticed that everyone from places three and upwards are gone. This means that we are in more danger now than we ever were before."

"Do you know where we can find Ludwig and Kiku?" Yao asked.

"I saw a reception in the memories of one of the doctors…" Francis muttered, "There is a reception somewhere, to get to where we are now, he needed to go into the right side door, but the surgery is on the left side…"

"Hang on!" Alfred exclaimed as he looked at Ivan, "We entered through a reception! We chose to go through the right door rather than the left! We know where that is!"

Ivan's eyes widened with the realisation, "Yes! We do!"

"Great!" Gilbert explained, "Let's go then! What are we waiting for?!"

 **PHASE FIFTY-FIVE**

"FUCK!" the doctor hissed, as Ludwig heard a crash beside where he rested, "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! The American and Russian, they were here all along!"

"All cameras are down, we have no surveillance, and we don't know how many have been released while our radios are down."

"FUCKING HELL!"

"I'll initiate a full evacuation of staff and-"

"Only we are leaving here, leave the medical staff and guards on duty, do not tell them anything."

"Are you insane?"

"Perhaps. We can't have those freaks knowing that we're onto them, we'll make them think that we don't know, leave them to deal with the staff that thinks everything is normal."

"But, they'll kill them. They've killed the guards stationed at F.B and A.K and doctors collecting F.V, as well as in the security room, we don't know how many are out right now."

"Some things are worth sacrificing. Keeping those freaks confused and scared will buy us more time."

"Yes, sir. But this one here, he can hear us."

Ludwig squeezed his eyes as he felt a piercing pain intrude into his neck, releasing a cold fluid within him.

"L.B is under control, he won't remember a thing…"


	24. Chapter 24

**PHASE FIFTY-SIX**

The Italians ran ahead of the group, scouting out any signs of danger that may have been waiting for them in the lobby, so far it all looked fine, not one person was seen as the Italians ran down the hallways before finding the door that Alfred had described, and running up the dark staircase.

This kind of act reminded Lovino of their lives back in Italy, with the Mafia… When he and Feliciano were used as tools of intimidation, he remembered when Capo made them run beside the car of one of his disliked associated, and bang on his windows as he sped away.  
Of course, it hadn't always been like that… since he was older, Lovino remembered their grandfather better. The man was tall and strong for his age, and really knew how to grab the attention of anyone who stood near him whether they'd be an enemy or an ally. Despite knowing what his grandchildren were capable of, he never used them, but rather; he protected them. He made sure that his grandchildren were looked after and that their abilities would not become a tool for profit or extortion. He did not want them to see the evils he conducted behind closed doors, or the people who had to suffer because of the choices he made.  
However, that all changed when he disappeared, of course; Lovino and Feliciano were not told why, being told that they "were too young to understand", despite the fact that they were no longer small children. To this day, they still don't know what happened to their loving grandfather, but they have their suspicions and those suspicions call for revenge…  
Capo had originally been their grandfathers second-hand, whom had always known about the brothers powers, and respected their grandfathers choice to shield them… at least until he disappeared. It hadn't even been a week after their grandfather disappeared, and he was having the brothers be taught how to hold guns, and how they can use their power for intimidation. They became weapons for the Mafia.  
But somehow, the men in suits convinced Capo that something else was worth more than them…

"Clear!" Feliciano chirped when he finished looking through the lobby, "could have they evacuated?"

"I think so, there's hardly anyone here, and as if they don't know already!" Lovino pointed out, before looking at the glass door on the left side of the reception desk, remembering Francis' prediction that Ludwig and Kiku were being kept in there.

"You look tense," Feliciano pointed out.

"How are you not tense?!" Lovino asked, confused by his younger brothers calmness of the situation.

"Because I know that we're going to get out this time," Feliciano pointed out confidently, sending a shiver down the spine of his pessimist brother.

"Don't say things like that, I don't understand how you're not terrified right now. I remember when Capo would adjust his gun holster and you'd start crying: how are you calm?!"

Feliciano looked to the floor, "I… I don't know… I guess… I guess it's because we're not alone this time, it's not just us fighting the battle anymore. We have people with us who want to protect us, as we want to protect them, and that calms me. I don't want to run away anymore."  
Lovino remained silent, somewhat impressed at his younger brothers conclusion.

The others suddenly joined the Italians in the reception, "This is it!" Francis exclaimed.

"So… they're through there?" Yao asked, pointing to the glass doors on the left side of the wide red and black receptionist desk.

"Yes." Francis replied, before his eyes wandered towards Arthur, who stood next to him.  
Arthur's eyes narrowed as he glared at the Frenchman, gritting his teeth.

"Have you got something to say?" Arthur growled, tightening his hands into fists.

"No, no, no…." Francis muttered as he distanced himself from the Englishman.

"Alright, let's go and get them!" Gilbert announced as he marched towards the doors.

"Some of us should stay here," Alfred pointed out, "Some should get the others while the rest stay here and guard this area."

Francis' eyes narrowed, "splitting up is not a wise idea. But… they could be closing in on us…"

"We'll just be quick then!" Gilbert pointed out quickly, in an attempt to urge everyone to move.

In the end, it was Gilbert, Matthew and Yao as one group, and Francis and Alfred as another, whilst Arthur, Feliciano, Lovino and Ivan stood as guards to the reception.

 **PHASE FIFTY-SEVEN**

Gilbert's eyes narrowed as he opened the glass doors and stepped into the hallway, which was identical to the one that sat on the right side of the reception. Doors lined the walls each with the word "RECOVERY" written in steel letters, leading into different rooms; the duo behind them began to check the rooms on the left side, so the trio concluded to check the rooms on the right.  
Each room was revealed to be empty, and as each empty room was revealed, Gilbert felt his anxiety mutate within him and eventually turned into rage.

He opened the last door with a strong swing, only to reveal a quiet white room with a bed and a desk, and a large mirror on the wall.  
A large figure was lying on his back in the bed, with a large concrete straight-jacket covering the figures torso. Recognising it, Gilbert ran into the room and leaned over the bed.

"LUDWIG!" Gilbert cried, tapping on the concrete jacket that kept his brother's arms bound to his side. Ludwig didn't respond, still in a deep sleep, Gilbert tapped on the jacket again, and still got no response from Ludwig, "come one! Wake up!"

"Gilbert…" Matthew mumbled, placing his hand on Gilbert's shoulder as the German began to hyperventilate.

"Ludwig! Ludwig… Wir werden gehen, aufwachen… bitte…"  
Even resorting to their native language did not help, Gilbert began to physically crumble as thoughts of anxiety and fear began to override him. He even began to question whether his little brother was still alive, as he could not watch his chest move with every breath, or feel for a heartbeat or a pulse. He was not going to leave this room unless Ludwig was going to walk beside him and the time constraints did not ease these worries.

"We need to wake him up!" Gilbert snapped as he turned to the desk and began to open the drawers, "there's got to be something here!"

Matthew stood by Gilbert, becoming increasingly worried at the Germans reaction, "Gilbert, breathe—"  
Matthew was interrupted when the German turned to him and gripped his shoulders.

"I am panicking right now! I cannot lose him again!" Gilbert hissed, "He's all I have left, and if he's not going to move, neither am I!"

"It's going to be ok…" Matthew promised, unsure of what else he could say to calm the Germans nerves.

"I can't leave without him… he's the only family I have left… he's all I have left, my best friend, my little brother…" Gilbert's eyes began to redden and blur with tears, "I was supposed to look after him… but…"

"Hey, you have been looking after him," Matthew pointed out, "you didn't leave your cell because you wanted to protect him."

"Heh… my intentions mean nothing, he was still hurt." Gilbert chuckled, sympathising with the Canadians attempts to console him.

"I have an idea." Yao muttered, placing his hands on the side of Ludwig's head, staring down at the sleeping German.

"What are you-"  
Gilbert was interrupted when strands of electricity surged down Yao's arms, before delivering an electric shock onto Ludwig. Ludwig shook violently and jolted upwards, before falling back to the bed, still unconscious. However, a large crack appeared on the concrete straight-jacket.

"WAIT!" Gilbert cried as he attempted to run to his brother's side, but Matthew held him back, understanding that Yao needed to do his job in peace.

Yao did it again, finally causing Ludwig's eyes to open as he unleashed a loud and painful scream, his arms shot outward, pulling apart the concrete straight-jacket.  
Ludwig sat up as he wheezed in pain, Yao sighed with relief as he helped the German remove the concrete that hung off of his arms. Gilbert broke out of Matthew's grip, running towards his younger brother.  
Ludwig's eyes widened as he started to come-to, waking up from his deep sleep, still becoming used to the word around him. Gilbert continued to speak in German as he hugged his brother, coming to the realisation that he wasn't hurt.


	25. Chapter 25

**PHASE FIFTY-EIGHT**

"There is something bothering you…" Francis pointed out, as Alfred sighed at the discovery of another empty room, he glanced down the hallway, to see the door at the end of the hallway was open, and Matthew, Gilbert and Yao had disappeared.

"Please, try to not say too much," Alfred mumbled.

"I only say what people think," Francis pointed out, "it's just that people don't like hearing it coming from someone else, it suddenly makes their issues and insecurities much more real, some people even feel embarrassed and exposed, not that I blame them…"

"But, I just don't want to hear it," Alfred replied, checking the next room, only to be disappointed by the sight of another empty room. "I don't want to know what you think about this."

"Heh, I rarely say what I think. Besides, it's bothering both of you…" Francis mumbled, "Neither of you know what to do about these feelings that keep creeping up on you. It all ignited when one acted on it, and wasn't prepared to take the weight of what would follow. He wants to escape from everything he held inside; he pushes it away and hopes it'll go and let him disappear…"

"You're not saying what's in my head…" Alfred pointed out.

"I know, but you want to have some kind of glimpse into how he's feeling." Francis explained.  
Alfred tightened his grip on the doorhandle, not denying Francis' point. He finally opened the door, only to see a face staring back at him from a tray in the room that sat next to a bed, where a figure laid still underneath the white covers.  
It was a doctor; that was obvious from his white coat; the doctor reached into his coat and pulled out a small gun.

"You… You're not supposed to be out," The doctor whimpered, overwhelmed with fear as his hands shook as he pointed the gun at Francis and Alfred.  
Before Alfred or Francis could act, a figure with black hair slid out of the bed, before drawing out a blade and holding it against the doctor's neck; in shock the doctor dropped the gun.

Kiku's eyes were frenzied and furious, as he grumbled in his native tongue, before forcing the terrified doctor to the floor.

Francis gasped with horror, putting his hand over his mouth as he and Alfred entered the room. "The operation…"

"What happened?" Alfred asked, confused.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" Kiku growled angrily into the petrified doctor's ear.

"Kiku, what's going on, calm down…" Alfred muttered, walking closer to Kiku and his hostage.

"They've done something to my mother! They measured her blades! They could only do that if they had her! WHAT DID THEY DO TO HER!?" Kiku cried, as a tear finally ran down his red cheeks.

Francis knelt down before the doctor's face, staring intensely into his eyes, "he knows, he knows what happened to her, but he's too scared to say it out loud. He wasn't there, but he knows of it… It…" Francis suddenly froze, and his eyes widened, before he glanced at Kiku as his lip quivered.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Kiku wheezed, pressing his blade into the doctor's neck, drawing a little blood.

Francis stumbled back, before tripping and landing on the ground, as though he was terrified of the images flooding his head, "it's how they learned what to do with you. They took her blades…" Francis bit his lip, fighting the urge to talk.

"Keep going." Kiku ordered.

"But…"

 _"_ _Keep going. Where is she?"_

Francis sighed as he closed his eyes, "they took her blades, however, her arteries severed during the operation…. Kiku, _I'm so sorry…"_

Kiku's eyes widened with the realisation of what Francis was meaning, and at this point the doctor was crying from the fear.  
Alfred closed his eyes and looked away as Kiku began to tremble. Kiku lifted his blade from the doctor's neck, only to push it through the doctor's back, where the bloodstained blade protruded from his chest. Kiku cried loudly as he pulled his blade out of the limp doctor, letting him fall to the floor beside Kiku's knees. Kiku's white arm-sling was stained with blood and blood ran down and onto his black shirt. Francis crawled towards Kiku before pulling him in for a hug, coaxing Alfred to join him. Kiku cried loudly into the Frenchman's shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably as Alfred patted his back.

"We need to, _oh…_ " A new voice mumbled, as Matthew appeared before the door, glancing into the bedroom, seeing the sad sight of Kiku crying on the floor beside a bleeding doctor, whilst being comforted by Alfred and Francis.

Gilbert walked past the door with Ludwig's arm hooked over his shoulder, using his brother as a support to help him walk; Ludwig glanced into Kiku's room and caught a glimpse of the mess within. However, Gilbert kept moving, determined to give his little brother a place to sit as he recovered from his drowsiness.

"Shhh…" Francis cooed to Kiku, petting the top of his head and listening to his sobs and thoughts of pain, "It's going to be ok… We can act on this now, you are stronger than them, and you can take back the honour that they stole."

Kiku kept his eyes looking towards the floor as Francis and Alfred helped him to his feet, he could no longer think about anything other than the despair that had consumed him. Images of his mother flooded his minds and coerced the tears to continue flowing; she was all he had left… He didn't know where his father or siblings lived, he knew nothing of their lives after he and his mother left to live in Kyoto to conduct his training. She taught him tradition, she taught him strength as well as respect, now it was as if that had all been taken away from him. The years of isolation and protection had built him, and now the removal of his blade and the death of his mother built onto the weight against his aching heart.  
He could barely remember walking down the hallway, tears blinded him and the beating of his own heart deafened him from everyone else's words of comfort.

Everyone fell silent when Kiku, Francis and Alfred joined everyone at the reception, well aware that something tragic had happened, but were too afraid to ask. Lovino narrowed his eyes as he continued to search through the receptionist desk.  
He moved along the long desk and opened every drawer, each time he was left disappointed with only the discovery of plain notepads, calculators, staplers and other pieces of stationary. Until he opened the middle drawer and stared at a piece of paper, frowning he lifted the paper and began to read.

"I think I found a map!" Lovino exclaimed, breaking the silence induced by Kiku's cries, Lovino continued to read the shabbily drawn map. "It has the lobby, carpark, breakrooms…"

"Can it be of any help?" Yao asked, peering over Lovino's shoulder to glance at the map.

"I don't know…" Lovino muttered, he looked away from the paper to notice Francis, staring at him intensely, as though he was reading a novel. Francis ushered Kiku to the red couch that faced away from the desk, allowing him to grieve peacefully. "What are you looking at?"

"The map," Francis pointed out, "it could be useful."

"Well, if you think so, you can hold onto it then," Lovino pointed out, handing the piece of paper to Francis, finally allowing the Frenchman to see it with his own eyes.

"What are you suggesting we do?" Gilbert pointed out.

"We should allow Ludwig and Kiku some time to recover, there's no way they're ready to go out. Ludwig is slowly getting his strength back… and Kiku…" Feliciano pointed out, as he held onto Ludwig's shoulders, allowing the German to bend down and touch the floor with his fingers; stretching his back and arms. The Italian sighed as he stared at the back of Kiku's head, overwhelmed with sympathy, he fought the urge to run over and tackle the Asian with hugs and promises that everything was going to be ok, however, he questioned whether it'd help at all, besides, he knew that Ludwig would fall to the floor if he were to lose Feliciano's support.

"But we can't be here too long, surely they know that something is wrong now. Who knows, they could have an entire army massed outside." Arthur pointed out, leaning his hip against the receptionist desk.

"Can we really go through another fight again?" Ivan asked, "Even with our powers, they still knocked most of us out with gas."

"What if we destroy their ability to do that before we attack them?" Alfred asked.

"A fight is inevitable… However, we need to figure out what we're going to do after that, how we're going to get out of here," Yao pointed out.

"We're defiantly better prepared for a fight this time, we can do things that we couldn't do before," Arthur explained.

Francis frowned as he glanced over at Matthew, whom sat quietly on the couch across from Kiku, before looking at the map again, his mind became occupied with ideas and plans for escape, "I think I have an idea."


	26. Chapter 26

**PHASE FIFTY-NINE**

"Is everyone ok with this?" Francis asked, as Ludwig used his strength to pull open the elevator doors.  
Matthew nodded in response to the Frenchman's question.

"Are you sure you're alright to do this right now?" Feliciano asked, as he laid his hands on Kiku's shoulders, Kiku didn't look up from the floor.

"I don't want my anger to become me…" Kiku replied, "so I have to do this now…" Feliciano weakly smiled, admiring his new friend's courage and it filled him with determination.

The group stepped into the elevator and the darkness, Yao entered last and allowed Ludwig to pull the doors shut, and held them in position. Yao lit his hand with the surge of electricity, before placing his hand onto the control panel of the elevator, suddenly the lights in the elevator turned on. Without needing any encouragement, Yao clicked on the button that was labelled with "L" for 'lobby', and the elevator began to jolt upward with movement. Ludwig's muscles tensed as he held the elevator doors closed.

"Do you have it?" Gilbert asked.

"Yes." Ludwig grumbled.

"You should keep this," Francis pointed out, passing the map to Gilbert, "When you think the time is right, you can act on the plan, but first we need to make them think that we're all there." Francis looked at Alfred who stood at the back corner of the elevator, with his arms folded over his stomach. "You don't need to worry; you are capable of pulling this off. You've just never done something like that."

"Yeah…" Alfred mumbled.

"And Arthur will back you up…" Francis pointed out.

"I know," Alfred muttered, before glancing at Arthur, who also stood in a corner with his arms crossed.

Francis sighed, "You're all so full of anxiety, and I know that all of you are capable of this. We will get out, and we will find a way to survive after we do. We will cross that bridge when we get to it. But for now we all need to focus."

"At first, we should all focus on helping Alfred stop the gas, and then we act on our own," Ivan explained.

"But we don't have to act on our own, imagine how powerful we could be if we coordinated our attacks," Lovino replied.

"Though, some of us aren't good at coordination, or working with others," Arthur grumbled, Arthur glanced at Kiku, suddenly noticing the Asians lack of speaking, the Brit sighed; understanding his urge to remain silent, as well as the thirst for revenge.

"Well, you should all decide now whether you want to be a team," Yao pointed out, "We're here."  
Ludwig pulled open the elevator doors, allowing everyone to leave, immediately after exiting the elevator, everyone dropped to the floor, using a nearby couch as cover.  
Matthew turned invisible and walked around the couch, with the intent of finding out just how many enemies waited for them outside the exit doors.  
Suddenly Matthew appeared right before Gilbert and Yao, _"I think they saw me."_

"What?" Gilbert asked.

"Infrared…" Alfred grimaced from behind them, with his back leaning against the back of the couch, remembering the sight of Matthew's cell and how they were using infrared cameras to see where he was.

"What makes you think they saw you?" Feliciano asked.

"They reacted when I ran past, some lifted their weapons, but the man in the white coat made them lower it," Matthew explained, "they know we're here, they're just waiting for us to make the first move."

"Then why don't we give it to them?" Ivan asked.

"Fine, be weary though… we don't know if their intent is to kill us or to capture us," Francis explained.

It was Kiku who stood first, his bravery consuming him as he stepped out from behind the couch and began to walk towards the entrance, with his one free hand pressed against his back. He was ready to face the doctor who took his blade, and give him exactly what he deserved, he no longer cared about the risk he took.  
However, he didn't find himself alone for much longer, Feliciano and Ludwig stood by his side first, only to be quickly joined by everyone else. Like a team they stood by the entrance, standing tall with each other as support, they were prepared to give everything to their escape, and this time they understood the threat that stood in the way of them and freedom.

The sight before them was one of military organisation, but on a smaller scale. There were less guards present, however this did not impact on their power to intimidate. There were two rows of men with heavy guns, each wearing black clothing and protective gear, behind them stood the man in the white coat. He stood in the middle of a line of large black vans, which acted as a barricade to the red firetruck; however, none of the firemen from earlier were present.  
This intimidating sight was not enough to waver the team's bravery, they were ready to face the weapons and beat these odds.

"I have one of them…" Francis whispered, intensifying his stare at the guards, "Be ready to act on my signal."

"And what is that?" Arthur grumbled through his teeth, physically fighting the urge to ignite his arms and leap into battle.

"You'll know it when you see it…" Francis mumbled.

"So, you've all come back for more?!" The doctor asked, "We are done with giving you chances, this time, we will show _no mercy!"_

"Neither will we…" Kiku whispered, before unleashing his single blade.

"NOW!" Francis commanded, right before the guard at the end of the line turned to his colleagues and began opening fire, under the Frenchman's powerful influence. Everyone quickly figured out that this was the signal to act, and immediately followed the signal and burst into action.

The final fight for their freedom launched with flying colours, everyone knew then that there was no going back, they were either going to be free, or were going to die trying to achieve it.

 **Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that I don't know whether the next part will be up within the next 7 days, because next week is going to be literal hell for me, with work and university and assignments. So beware for a little wait, it just depends on whether i have the free time to write.  
Thank you for supporting this story**


	27. Chapter 27

**PHASE SIXTY**

With the plan in mind, Alfred ran forward, using the chaos that Francis' mind-victim created as a cover, and Arthur followed quickly.  
Arthur dashed in front of Alfred with his flames at the ready, before clearing a path for Alfred by breathing fire like a dragon, dispersing the crowd. The Italians acted as cover on Alfred's sides, watching for any attacking guards. Any guard who lifted their gun towards Alfred found themselves engulfed in a cloud of black smoke, before their gun was snatched and they were pushed to the ground by Gilbert.  
With a path cleared for him by Arthur, Ludwig ran at one of the parked vans, trying to find where the man in the white coat went; he recognised the doctor's voice … that same voice that cursed when he failed to cut through Ludwig's skin, and now he realised that it must have been the same doctor that took Kiku's blade. Ludwig grimaced as he imagined what horrors would have happened to him if the doctor had his way with Ludwig… With the anger fresh in his mind, Ludwig lifted the black armoured van and held it over his head, tensing his muscles, Ludwig braced himself and threw the heavy van towards a formation of guards who were beginning their advance towards Arthur, Alfred and the Italians. The van landed perfectly and crashed before the guards could properly aim their weapons, preventing their attack.  
Ivan's first objective was to get to the firetruck, he aimed to not only break it; but use it: he knew that if he had water around him, he could manipulate the ice. Ivan removed his black gloves once again, revealing his blue and white frostbitten hands, and black finger tips, within the space of an hour after he was defrosted, his frostbitten skin had returned. Yao ran beside him, his arms glowing with the electricity that ran through his entire body, illuminating his eyes with a bright blue glow. Yao swiped at anyone who dared to come close, zapping them with lightning and electrocuting them.  
Francis' objective was to find the doctor: assuming that he was the leader, and held the answers to their escape, as well as their capture in the first place. If only Francis could get close enough, if he could control him… he'd find out everything he'd need to know, and perhaps even guarantee their escape. With his victim as a cover, Francis ran around the field, using his victim to shoot down anyone who got too close, despite his searching, Francis could not find the doctor in the white coat, he heard the thoughts of the panicking and dying guards, and the angry and terrified thoughts of his friends, but no thoughts of the mastermind...  
Matthew stayed by Kiku's side, careful to make sure that he didn't hurt himself because of his injury. Matthew grabbed a gun from the hand of a dead guard as he turned invisible and shot towards a guard who aimed his gun at Kiku's back. He wasn't going to run away anymore, and he wasn't going to hide, he was not going to use his invisibility as a protection or shield: he was going to use it as a weapon.  
Kiku stumbled as he ran, unable to keep his balance because of his missing blade. He couldn't fight properly not only because of his missing blade, but because his arm was kept to his chest in a bloodstained sling. However, Kiku refused to let his injury get in the way, he swung his working blade at anyone he encountered, slicing them down before they could even lift his gun. He maintained his anger, refusing to let it overwhelm him, he knew that his mother would not want him to become a monster of anger and revenge, he was going to honour her, and avenge her without losing himself in the process.

Suddenly, just as they predicted, a hissing noise echoed through the area, ringing in the ears of everyone in the group: now it was up to Alfred.  
Alfred saw the source of the noise, a metal canister was thrown towards them as it emitted a thick green gas, and Alfred held his breath as he ran past Arthur and towards the canister.

"Work with me, please…" Alfred whispered, remembering that small child who cried and sat on the swing set, haunted by the death of his parents. As he held his arms out towards the canister that rolled on the ground, he begged the child within him to not let him down, to allow his powers to work without a problem. He couldn't let his new friends down, if this plan fails: they are done for, forever.  
A white hue glazed over his eyes as his face went blank and his mind went numb. He watched as the canister hovered before him, and the gas formed around the canister, trapped by an invisible barrier. The glow of Arthur's fire illuminated the background of Alfred's line of sight, as the Brit formed a wall of fire around himself and the American, forcing any approaching guard to back away from the fire. Arthur jumped in and out of his fire barrier, laughing like a maniac as he chases away the terrified guards, screaming about how he makes anyone who traps him suffer.

 _"_ I WILL BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND! _I WILL BURN IT!"_

Ivan and Yao knocked down any guard that tried to come close the fire-engine, well aware that they planned to use it to combat Arthur and his powerful flames. Grabbed onto the hose and turned it on as Yao flipped the switches and pulled the lever, activating the water. Ivan sprayed the approaching guards with the powerful torrent of water, knocking them all to their feet and saturating the ground, giving Ivan enough water to work with.  
Right on que, Ludwig ran to the firetruck as Yao stopped the flow of the water, Ludwig hooked his hands on the bottom of the truck and began to push. Ludwig screamed and cursed as the heavy vehicle strained his muscles, as he made little progress. Finally the vehicle began to tilt over, until eventually gravity allied itself with Ludwig, and forced the firetruck to turn over. The familiar black smoke appeared on the toppled side of the firetruck, before forming into Gilbert.

"New record," Gilbert chuckled as he leant over the edge of the firetruck.

"Find Matthew, you can use the chaos now to get out, I'll cover you," Ludwig explained as Gilbert evaporated into the black smoke, before reforming beside Ludwig. Only to turn around to see a line of guards pointing their weapons at them.

Feliciano and Lovino ran over the firetruck and jumped over Ludwig and Gilbert, moving so fast they appeared to look like simple blurs. Suddenly the figures of Lovino and Feliciano zoomed over the toppled firetruck, before jumping over the Germans in a blur, as they charged at the guards, knocking down them down to the ground, before snatching away their guns.  
With guns in their hands, the Italians ran around a group of guards, with each shot hitting a guard with veteran-marksman precision. The memories of guns in their hands made the Italians reminisce over their days working with the Mafia, when they themselves were considered as the 'secret weapons'. With perfect symmetry they dashed past each other and released a bullet each, becoming faster and faster, so to those viewing them; they only appeared as blurs.  
Lovino glanced at Feliciano to see his little brothers body move with such speed, even Lovino could see the illusion of multiple Feliciano's following each other's movements, the sight was unnerving.

"Feli!" Lovino cried, catching Feliciano's attention, Feliciano screeched to a halt, Feliciano looked at Lovino and widened his eyes, seeing the same illusion come from Lovino.

"I think we're going too fast…" Feliciano gasped, before glancing behind Lovino and gasping, "We're going too fast…"

Lovino turned around to see that Feliciano was right, the world around them had slowed down so dramatically, and everything was moving in slow motion. Lovino realised that they could use this to their advantage, he and Feliciano walked around the slow-moving figures of their friends fighting against the guards. Lovino bent down to get out of the path of a bullet, before following the path of the bullet and realising that it was on a perfect path with Yao's shoulder. Lovino stared at the bullet, watching it slowly glide through the air in a perfect straight line, Lovino then looked at Yao, watching the Asians eyes glow with electricity, unaware of the approaching danger. Lovino placed his fingers on the sides of the bullet, before tilting it in a different direction, completely changing the direction it was heading, and saving Yao from the impending injury. Lovino smiled, knowing that Yao will thank him later.

"Hey, Lovi!" Feliciano chuckled as he gestured to Ludwig, whom was charging at a group of guards, knocking them over like bowling pins. The German's face reflected his furious determination, "Look at Ludwig's face! He looks so funny!"

"Oh my god, you're such a child!" Lovino hissed.  
Suddenly, Feliciano's eyes widened and his face tensed with pain, "what's wrong?"

Feliciano stumbled towards Lovino, struggling to stand up, _"Everything, hurts…"_ Lovino took his little brother by the shoulders, and suddenly realised what was going on when he started feeling a similar burning pain within his legs, and a straining ache within his chest… they were going too fast for too long, their bodies were beginning to shut down. Finally, Lovino's knees gave up on him, and the Italians fell to the ground, panic setting into them as they heard the world around them begin to catch up with them.  
"Lovi…" Feliciano whimpered, becoming increasingly worried. "I can't move…"

"It's ok…" Lovino promised, as he noticed a guard looking at them, raising his weapon, the reality dawned on Lovino, however, the older Italian looked down at his little brother, who was unaware of the danger. "It's going to be ok…" Feliciano glanced over his shoulder, seeing the same guard moving towards them, moving slightly slower than an average speed.

 _"No… Lovino, I can't move…."_ Feliciano whimpered, tears coming to his eyes.

Suddenly the world returned to normal speed, and the familiar bang of a gun echoed through the Italian's instinctually, Lovino pushed Feliciano to the ground, and laid over him, in a pathetic attempt to shield him from the oncoming assault.  
However, nothing happened to them, Lovino opened his eyes and looked up to see a tall figure standing between them and the guard.

Feliciano pushed himself upward to see what was going on, "LUDWIG!"  
Ludwig's muscles tensed as he felt a sharp pain in his stomach where the bullet hit him, he awaited the oncoming pain. However, he gasped when he saw the flimsy bullet fall to his feet, having not even left a scratch on the Germans shirt. Realising that now was his chance to act, Ludwig turned around and lifted Lovino and carried him under his arm, before grabbing Feliciano and lifting him over his shoulder and running.

"What the hell?! You just got shot, you bastard, put us down!" Lovino hissed.

"I didn't got shot, I just got hit by a bullet!" Ludwig pointed out, "you should be thanking me!"

"Thank you Ludwig…" Feliciano thanked, as he pat Ludwig on the shoulder.

Suddenly, Kiku caught up to them and ran beside Ludwig, his one blade was soaked with thick blood.  
"How are you managing?" Ludwig asked.

"I am fine." Kiku grumbled, "This battle can't go on for much longer, their numbers are faltering… I spoke with Francis, he can't find the doctor; the man seems to have gone into hiding."

Ludwig and Kiku ran past Matthew, who removed his invisibility and lifted his gun and shot at the guard who chased after the trio.  
Matthew sighed as he watched the guard fall, he knew that this night was going to haunt him for the rest of his life; it's going to haunt everyone. However, he wasn't going to run and hide, despite his anxiety begging him to.  
Matthew stepped back, only to bump into a figure, that figure calmly placed his hands on Matthew's shoulders before leaning into him and whispering:  
"Now's our chance, are you with me?" Gilbert asked.

Matthew glanced back at Gilbert, nodding, "yes."

Ivan watched as Gilbert and Matthew dissolved into black smoke, before disappearing completely, he smiled as he watched a group of guard circle him, in a pathetic attempt to encounter him.  
Ivan stomped on the drenched ground, turning the water in front of him into ice. The ice shot from the ground and formed into a wall of sharp ice-spears, swinging his arm, Ivan made another wall of ice-spears that shot out towards the group of guards, impaling multiple of them. With a powerful kick, Ivan broke off the tips of more ice-spears and shot them at the ground, destroying the remaining guards.  
He fought alone, he had been fighting alone for as long as he remembered, he fought alone against himself for years as he watched his powers worsen the crippling sickness of his own little sister, Natalia. However, as he grew, his powers only became worse, and by the time he was eleven, he was constantly wearing gloves in order to hide the frostbite that covered his hands. Irina even fainted when she caught a glimpse of his blue wrist. He struggled to live with the guilt of being the cause of Natalia's crippling sickness. This battle with himself continued until he answered an ad in the newspaper that called for workers to join a job in the city, so under the cover of a winters night, Ivan left his family without a word, only with the intention of giving his little sister a chance to get better. He entered an adult world of abuse and exploitation, and learned that he was better off alone. However, he realised that these people around him, who called him a 'friend' weren't going to let him fight this entire battle alone.

Yao jumped over what remained of Ivan's wall of ice, his arms and eyes wore a powerful blue glow of electricity.

"I saw Gilbert and Matthew go, I think they're acting out the plan, pass it on."

Yao nodded, "are you ok?"

"I'm fine," Ivan answered as he noticed more guards forming on the other side of Ivan's wall of ice, Yao noticed the same thing forming on the opposite end, the Russian and the Asian stood back the back, ready to fight together.

Meanwhile, Alfred retained his heavy focus on the canister before him, and the gas that formed around it, trapped within the invisible barrier that Alfred created. Alfred debated how far he could throw the canister, and whether he could throw it far enough to eliminate the danger. He fought the urge to release the canister and join the fight, as he struggled to stand back and listen to Arthur scream with fury and laugh with madness over the powerful roar of his flames. But yet, he couldn't pull his eyes away from the canister, because he couldn't risk losing control over it, and ruining everyone's chances of escaping.

His arms twitched, as he struggled to hold the canister still, and maintain the invisible wall that kept the gas inside. He had to let go of this, _now_.  
Mustering all of his courage, he tightened his hands into fists and looked to the sky, before swinging his arms. The canister flew away, Alfred watched with fear as a line of gas formed along the canisters path.  
Finally satisfied that he had done his job, he looked at Arthur to see the Brit with fire ejecting from his hands and mouth, like he was the world's most efficient blow-torch. Spots of fire littered the ground right outside of the wall of fire that Arthur had created around Alfred.

Arthur roared once again, breathing fire like a dragon, burning alive the guard who was foolish enough to get too close. Engulfed in his rage, Arthur could barely hear Alfred's words; however, there was something inside the Brit that urged him, no, _begged_ him to stop and listen. But yet… he couldn't bear to listen to it, not now, he was scared to listen.  
He was a danger to everyone around him, he had been taught that for as long as he could remember, as he burned everything he touched. His heart had been charred by years of neglect, and it begged to be soothed. He had been breathing in his own smoke for so long, it burned his throat.

As he watched Alfred use his powers to lift the guards in front of him, before throwing them away, he watched as Alfred stopped all bullets in his path, before sending them right back to the men who shot it, striking them down in the process.  
However, something caught Arthur's sight; in the corner of his eye Arthur noticed the familiar shade of a white coat. Arthur finally focussed on the object, finally realising that it was the doctor, the man in charge of his whole operation, making his way towards the entrance to the facility.  
Arthur's anxiety told him that something was wrong, the doctor looked at him as he jogged up the stairs, with a stare that said _'come and get me'._

But Arthur's rage engulfed this anxiety in flames, and overtook Arthur's better judgment. Arthur burst into a sprint and ran towards the entrance to the facility as the doctor ran in.

A familiar voice cried as Arthur ran, but Arthur couldn't bear the pain of turning back to look at the source of the voice, knowing that allowing him to come with him would only create more danger for them. "ARTHUR! _ARTHUR!"_


	28. Chapter 28

**PHASE SIXTY-ONE**

Matthew looked down at the map again, frowning at its unclear instructions as he leaned into Gilbert, whom held the map and also stared at it with a confused glare. "Should we go back and start again?"

Gilbert frowned, "I don't think we have the time, the others are relying on us to be quick."

"Well, it'd be better for us to do it right the first time," Matthew pointed out.

Gilbert grumbled something in German, becoming irritated with the map, "I think I've figured it out. We may need to go downstairs…"

"Alright, it's something," Matthew muttered, smiling hopefully.

"Urgh, I want to stop thinking about this map, it's irritating me," Gilbert grumbled.

"Maybe then I should take it," Matthew pointed out as he calmly took the map out of Gilbert's hands, "tell me about you…"

"What?" Gilbert asked.

"I dunno; thought I'd make some discussion, it could help us relax over the stress that this map is causing, clear your head a little."

Gilbert smiled, before looking at the door that had the symbol of a staircase plastered on the front, "Um… I was born in East Berlin … after the wall fell we moved to the West, I'm not actually sure why…"

"What do you mean?" Matthew asked.

"I remember it being so sudden… we literally had to drop everything and run about a month after the wall fell… I think it had something to do with the Stasi…" Gilbert explained, before shaking his head, pushing away the memory. "After Ludwig was born, they became a lot more stressed, and a lot more … conservative, they joined a group of like-minded people and dragged Ludwig and I along for the ride."

"What do you mean?" Matthew asked.

"We were isolated, barely went to school, and were made to follow a really strict regime of work and study; Ludwig got the worse of it…" Gilbert sighed, "And when we found out that we were different… we knew that we had to keep it to ourselves or we'd be terribly punished."

"What happened when they did find out?" Matthew asked as he and Gilbert slowly walked down the staircase, the Canadian was captivated by the Germans story and listened intently as he continued to talk.

"Well, they took us to a church, a fucking _church;_ of all places. They had already made us hate god enough, now they were going to push us on the ground to be judged." Gilbert grumbled, before he smiled, "I wasn't going to let Ludwig suffer with me, so as we were interrogated about how we received our abilities, convinced that some demonic entity had played with us… I began to laugh; _madly._ I shook and screamed, laughed and spoke absolute gibberish, anything to convince them that I was the root of the problem. I already look different, so I think they suspected me anyways. Anything to convince them to let Ludwig go home."

"And how did that go?"

"Ludwig – that little bastard – caught on to what I was doing, and he started doing it too." Gilbert began to laugh, "So imagine Ludwig and I laughing and screaming, pretending to be possessed, scaring the living daylights over the old men who watched us."

"Heh," Matthew chuckled, "that must have been a sight."

"And well… they decided that isolation was the only thing that could fix us, so they wouldn't let either of us leave." Gilbert explained, "Until one day we both got irritated and just… broke out. Ever since then we've been working together to survive, breaking into holiday houses during the winter, stealing from shops for food… anything. Somehow we didn't die, _somehow."_

"I can relate to that…" Matthew mumbled as he pushed open the door as the bottom of the first section of the staircase, revealing another hallway, Matthew looked down at the map and frowned, trying to determine whether the hallway from the paper matched the hallways in front of them.

"How so?" Gilbert chuckled, "it's your turn now, start from the beginning."

"Fine then," Matthew mumbled, "I never met my father, and my mother struggled to cope with looking after me. We used to move a lot, I'm pretty sure I've lived in every Canadian province at some point. Heh, sometimes we'd spend days on the road, when I was twelve she taught me how to drive because she was tired."

"That's pretty cool." Gilbert mumbled.

"I know, right." Matthew chuckled, "I didn't know about what I could do until she got remarried, the man she married became a good excuse for me to use my powers. He was loud, rude, and was rough with me; even making the littlest of mistakes drove that madman into a rage… At this point I started to become angry with my mom for marrying him, and it only got worse when she became pregnant."

"Whoa…" Gilbert quietly gasped.

"I know, she became pregnant to an abusive asshole, great job; mom." Matthew grumbled, "I used to do this thing that I called 'ghosting', where I'd become invisible and slam doors, pull things off of the shelves, throw things and make noise late at night… We ended up moving house three times because of it, they came to believe that they were haunted: which is exactly what I wanted. I guess I believed that if I could make them afraid, they'd not want to be together, and he'd leave us alone. I guess I'm lucky, because when she caught me doing it, she didn't kick me out. But _he_ did."

 _"He_ kicked you out?" Gilbert asked.

"He was barely married to my mom for a year and somehow he had the power to kick me out without her approval! Not like he cared about having it anyway!" Matthew hissed, becoming irritated, "she didn't even fight it, she just watched him beat me up and throw me out."

"Perhaps she was scared…" Gilbert sighed.

"I don't even know if I have a brother or sister… because she was _scared,_ she didn't defend me from him, and then finally let him get rid of me for good!" Matthew sighed, before gritting his teeth, "I haven't seen or heard from them since. The last time I saw my mom was when I snuck in to steal some of my stuff back; she didn't even know I was there."

"What was she doing?" Gilbert asked.

Matthews's eyes narrowed as he frowned at the sour memory, as he tried to focus his mind back onto the map, rather than the image that haunted him ever since he left. "Crying."

 **PHASE SIXTY-TWO**

Arthur leapt into the lobby, watching the doctors white coat disappear into a door, marked with the staircase. His heart was engulfed in rage, and his arms were engulfed in flames as he sprinted from where he stood and followed the doctor, swinging the door open and running up the stairs, watching the door close on the first flight of stairs.

"BASTARD!" Arthur cried angrily as he ran up the stairs and ignored the exhausted ache of his muscles. He pushed open the door and continued to run, following the doctor down the hallway, fighting the urge to burn everything he ran past, as he knew he had to contain his energy. Arthur followed as the doctor suddenly ran into a room, he barged in expecting to see the doctor continuing his attempt at escape, and however, instead the doctor stood in the centre of a large office area, filled with desks, computers and filing cabinets, with one wall looking out to the scenery, offering a perfect view of the rising sun, as well as the chaotic fight that took place in the field in front of the building. Arthur stood still, unsure of how to feel about this setting, and his anxiety slowly began to creep up on him and he soon came to realise that something felt wrong about this situation. He tightened his hands into fists as he narrowed his eyes at the doctor.

"Do you have any idea about how much work was put into this… only for it all to go up in flames?" The doctor asked, "For years, men and women have slaved away in the pursuit of achieving greatness."

"Greatness? You created a prison!" Arthur spat, "Alfred and Ivan told us about the folders, the other experiments, the operations! You're treating us like animals! You treated the other group like animals, and we're not going to die letting you play god!"

The doctor smiled, "if you have something great presented in front of you, you're going to act and find out _why."_ The doctor explained, "Heh… I was thinking that Jones and Braginski would be the trouble-makers, but then again… this building isn't the first you've destroyed…"  
Arthur's eyes widened and his muscles tensed with shock, when a haunting memory forced itself back into his mind.

"How do you….?"

"How do you think we found out about you?" The doctor asked, "Lion Heart Mental Facility, Manchester, England. We had received many reports from that place regarding you, we interviewed doctors who watched you and we were preparing to collect you… however, one night a fire started… how many died again…?"

Arthur stood still, frozen by his shock.

"Ah, yes, thirteen innocent patients burned in their sleep, while two doctors died trying to save them… Tell me, was freedom worth it, or were you just having a tantrum and it got out of control?" The doctor asked, "It's funny, if you had just sat still for another month, you would have been in the first group."  
Arthur's eyes shot up to look at the doctor, whom held his wide smile, "Imagine, you would have met a Hungarian girl who could fly, an Austrian whose scream could make your ears bleed, a Spaniard with claws and fangs, a Swede who could speak with the dead… and so many _more…"_

Arthur grumbled, "But I'd be dead, wouldn't I?"

"Not if you were the lucky one," the doctor shrugged.

"No one is lucky here…" Arthur pointed out.

"Heh, but someday I'll get it, someday I'll know why you are all like this, and how I can take it and multiply it!"

"You don't know what you're messing with!"

"I don't know?!" The doctor hissed sarcastically, "I could give a better analysis of all of you than Bonnefoy _ever_ could."  
Arthur frowned with confusion, "you really have no idea just how large this whole thing is… As I said, I know everything about you, when you got sent to hospital and why you were there, I've interviewed every family who adopted Alfred F. Jones and returned him to the centre, the parents of Francis Bonnefoy and childhood friends, I've been attending Yao Wang's shows for years, I interviewed the relatives of Kiku Honda. I tracked down and interviewed the birthmother of Matthew Williams, found the parents and church members who lived with Gilbert and Ludwig Beilschmidt, interviewed the mafia members who knew of Lovino and Feliciano Vagaras' abilities as well as the people they terrorised, and I also spoke to the men who worked with Ivan Braginski, I even found his sister. I know much more than any of you can imagine, you freaks have been my passion for the last five years…"

"But yet… you tie us down and try to cut us open…" Arthur grumbled.

"There need to be sacrifices for the greater good, as soon as I know what I am doing, imagine just what I can do…" The doctor sighed.  
Arthur's eyes widened uncomfortably as the doctor revealed his hand from behind his back, revealing a large knife. In response, Arthur ignited his arms, reminding the mad doctor of the force he stood before, the doctor had literally brought a knife to a fight with a flamethrower, Arthur smiled, aware of his advantage. However, the Brit froze when he saw the doctor run the knife over his wrists, drawing out blood, confused and scared, Arthur stepped back a little, unsure of how he should react.  
However, as his blood dripped out, it didn't drop to the floor and make a mess; instead it appeared firm… and sharp. The doctor's head shot upwards to look at Arthur, revealing frenzied and blood-red pupils, Arthur shuddered at the uncomfortable sight, becoming regretful of his decision to chase the doctor alone. He watched as the doctor lumbered forward, as though his body had become stiff, the blood formed into whips that ran out of his wrists, leaving droplets of blood wherever they hovered. The doctor smiled, allowing a line of blood to escape the corner of his mouth, giving Arthur a sickening feeling in his stomach.  
It was then that Arthur realised that the doctor wasn't like the others who trapped them: the doctor was just like them … a freak.


	29. Chapter 29

**PHASE SIXTY-THREE**

Arthur gasped at the sight before him, the doctor's powers matched his intentions: his arms were stained with the grotesque sight of blood, and blood clots formed into whips that hung from his wrists. Arthur wasted no more time, bursting his arms into flames and running around the doctor, setting everything he could on fire. Arthur was unsure about how he could tackle the doctor and his terrifying power, so he did what he knew he could do best: _destroy._

The walls, the tables and the chairs erupted into flames as the doctor chased Arthur around the large room, Arthur only smiled as he watched the destruction unfold before him. Whenever Arthur feared that the doctor was getting too close, he unleashed flames from his mouth, and covered the doctor in flames.

"You little _shit!"_ The doctor hissed as he swung his arm at Arthur, where his blood-whip stretched to reach Arthur. Arthur screamed with fright when the whip smacked into his stomach, and threw him to the ground, knocking the breath out of him. As Arthurs fire roared in the background, Arthur looked up to see the doctor walk towards him, with a twisted smile on his face; leaving Arthur to imagine the horrors that the doctor was thinking. Instead of waiting to find out, Arthur pounced upward, roaring with flames, forcing the doctor to stand back. However, the doctor's whips were longer than Arthur's flames, he managed to strike Arthur across the head, forcing the Brit to fall to the ground and roll, feeling a stinging pain on the side of his face.

However, as soon as he rose to his feet, the doctor struck again with a force so strong, it threw Arthur across the room, before he smashed against the window-wall, creating a large crack.

"You're like us, _why are you doing this?!"_ Arthur grumbled, as he forced himself to stand, feeling the change of gravity drive a line of blood to run from the cut on Arthur's cheek.

"Simple… why would I test my scientific capabilities on myself?" The doctor asked, "Why would I not get a bunch of guineapigs…?"  
Without needing to reply, Arthur growled as he charged at the doctor with his flames at the ready, determined to silence the doctor forever.  
"I operate on so many… but yet, I can't find the key to our power… if only you would _cooperate!"_

Arthur rolled to the side to avoid the smack of the blood-whip, before breathing fire at the doctor, forcing him to stand back. However, Arthur stood too close, and one of the doctor's whips wrapped around the Brits neck. Arthur gasped as the doctor forced him to the floor, before standing on his hands, as the other whip wrapped around Arthur's neck, and tightened its grip.

Arthur gasped as he struggled to breathe, being forced to look at the terrifying and bloody face of the doctor, Arthur tried to move, he tried to fight it, but he could feel the stinging pain of the whips cut his neck as it tightened its grip. He kicked his legs in and used the last of his strength to give his arms some fire, however, the effort was futile.  
Arthur began to panic as his vision blurred and his lungs ached in pain, he body began to involuntarily twitch as he gasped for air. Arthur's heart raced out of control as he felt himself slip in and out of consciousness, however, the fire refused to subside. He felt his power creep up behind him, his vision flashed from the doctor's face, to the doctor from his nightmares. Arthur began to forget where he was and even who he was, all he could feel was the restraint of his body and the pain in his throat. Arthur began to scream in pain, until everything erupted into flames, and everything went silent after a loud crash, and the noise of shattering glass.

Despite being able to breathe again, Arthur couldn't move, as he felt his consciousness drift away from him. He breathed in the heavy smoke and began to choke on it and he still couldn't move, or fight against the darkness that loomed over him…. But yet, he was ok with it… He contemplated fighting for his life, however he lost the argument, he did what he could and he shouldn't fight against the inevitable punishment for everything he had done. He knew that if he died here, he would be ok with it, he accepted death like it was an old friend, considering he had brought it upon so many others. He calmed down as he continued to breathe in the smoke, fully aware that even if he could move and fight for his life, he wouldn't do it… He had contemplated ending it all a long time ago, but the opportunity never presented itself in such a way, that Arthur couldn't refuse…

 _"_ _I'm so sorry…"_ Arthur whispered, before letting the darkness overwhelm him, and he drifted into unconsciousness.

 **PHASE SIXTY-FOUR**

The number of the guards decreased dramatically, and Kiku smiled; the battle was nearly over, they're so close to winning, he could taste freedom right before him.  
A firing squad positioned itself before Alfred, and all shot at once, only for Alfred to raise his fist, stopping the bullets in mid-air, before sending them back to the firing squad with one powerful swing.  
Ludwig lifted another black van before throwing it at the same firing squad that attacked Alfred, destroying them.  
One of the remaining guards was Francis' victim, who shot down any guard he could see at Francis' command.  
Feliciano and Lovino gained back their strength, and ran past Ludwig, jumping over the wreckage that was the van he just threw.  
With one powerful stomp, Ivan destroyed the wall of ice he had created, allowing Yao to run out with his arms at the ready: surging with electricity as his eyes glowed.

"Things are looking good," Francis pointed out as he pressed his back against Alfred's. "I heard some of the other guards thoughts, apparently the doctor has run back inside the building, do you think it's worth chasing him? Mathieu and Gilbert should be back soon."

"Wait… I saw Arthur run inside earlier, I was supposed to chase him but I got a little _distracted."_ Alfred explained.

Francis frowned as he connected the dots, it was true that the thoughts of the doctor retreated did occur at the same time as he last saw Arthur.  
Alfred's eyes widened with worry, as he too started to connect the dots.

"You don't think he's-"

The American was interrupted by a large crash, as the second floor window of the facility burst open with flames. And a figure flew through the flames before landing on the grass near the group, after the last guard fell everyone stared in silence at the figure in the white coat, which was stained with fresh blood.

"IT'S HIM!" Ludwig cried as Feliciano sped towards the figure, however, the doctor stood up and swung at the Italian, hitting him with a whip made of his own blood. This picked up the Italian and threw him across the field, smashing him into Ivan and Yao, forcing the trio to the ground. Ludwig was aimed at next, with the doctor's whip wrapping around his forearm, only for the blonde German to smile and swing his arm, using his strength to swing the doctor over his head and slam the doctor to the ground; seeing it as some form of payback, as not even the sharp whips of the doctors blood could even scratch Ludwig's impenetrable skin.

 _"_ _Get me close to him!"_ Francis commanded as he and Alfred began to run towards the doctor.

However, Yao got to the doctor first, running at him, the doctor cursed as he used his free whip to slash at Yao, only for Yao to snatch the whip and deliver a powerful shock, with a devious smile on his face he listened to the doctor scream from the electrical shock.

When Francis got close enough, he wasted no time in forcing himself into the doctor's mind.

Francis found himself standing in an office, he could smell the outdated cigarettes waft throughout the room, he checked the date on the desk, peeking over the shoulder of the young man who sat at the desk, Francis gasped when he realised that he was watching a memory from the year 1989.  
The young man who sat at the desk was the doctor, he was fairly new to this position of power within the company, and was well aware of his powers, in fact, his mind was filled with thoughts of ways he could figure out how his powers worked, and why he had them.  
In his apartment he kept a notebook that was filled with sketches of his blood whips, as well as theories of why he had them, he had become obsessed with self-mutilation and auto-surgery, anything that could help him get a better look at himself, and to see if there was some way for him to share his abilities. He had dreams of a powerful military, a military built of soldiers with extraordinary abilities, who could squash any rebellion and win every war…

The door to his office opened and an older man walked in, holding a file.

"Did you hear what happened in the Soviet Union?" the man began.

"The wall fell, everything's gone to shit?" the doctor guessed, not being too concerned with the state of the union.

"They found a girl behind the Iron Curtain, whose blood was black, and could burn anyone who touched it," the older man pointed out, at this point, he caught the doctors attention, "sound familiar?"

"Do you mean that there's someone like me?" the doctor asked, his eyes widening with wonder. "In Eastern Europe?"

"I bet they're all over Europe, all over the world, in fact. I don't think you're alone," the man explained, as he leaned over the doctor's desk. "Here I have the blueprints and the funds for you to build a facility."

"What do I have to do?" he asked.

"Find others like yourself, find out what makes them special and how _we_ can take it," the man explained, "this should be enough to get you the staff and equipment, and you don't need to worry about the police in the area, Eastern Europe is still an unstable place, and governments are willing to look away for a cut of profit."

"Sir… this is…" the doctor gasped, flipping through the pages of the documents, amazed at the detail and the freedom this granted him, overwhelmed with joy that he can now explore his ideas.

"However, I don't want you hurting yourself, there will be none of _this…"_ the man explained, as he gestured to cutting his wrists, referring to the doctors powers, "you can only do that when we know what we're doing, try out your theories on the other freaks you find."

"Yes, thank you, father, I won't let you down."

Engulfed with rage, Francis ignored the rules of memory intervention, and jumped onto the desk, forcing himself into the memory.  
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Francis cried as he punched the doctor in the face.

Meanwhile in reality, Alfred watched as Francis' muscles tensed, and the doctor began to scream and twitch violently. Alfred finally caught a glimpse of Francis' eyes and gasped, they had become completely black.

 _"GeT oUt Of My HeAd!"_ the doctor screamed as he shot upward, pulling himself out of Ludwig's grip, Francis gasped as though had been punched in the stomach, before falling to his knees.  
The doctor began to attack again, and with one mighty swing, he knocked down Alfred, Lovino and Yao. He roared with rage as his eyes turned completely red and blood ran out of his mouth like a river.  
However, everyone froze in shock when a long blade protruded through the doctor's chest, impaling him, the doctor gasped as he looked down at the blade, being shocked by the realisation.

" _You picked the wrong group…"_ Kiku whispered, before he pulled his blade out of the doctor's back, before pushing him to the ground, where the doctor wheezed quietly. Kiku continued to shake, overwhelmed with the shock of what he had just done, until he leaned on Feliciano for support.

"It's … over…" Ivan gasped, as though he couldn't believe it himself.

Suddenly a large black van drove around the side of the building, driving erratically towards the group; before screeching to a halt, the front window to the van rolled down to reveal a smiling Gilbert and Matthew.  
"Did we miss the party!?"

"You missed everything!" Ludwig roared.

"Hang on…" Alfred gasped, as he looked back at the building, suddenly realised that someone was missing. _"Oh SHIT!"_  
Without looking back at the others, Alfred ran back to the building, his heart aching from the initial shock and the pain of worry, he knew that something was wrong, but yet he was terrified of the idea of finding out what it was. "ARTHUR!"


	30. Chapter 30

**PHASE SIXTY-FIVE**

Alfred panicked as he opened the door to the staircase, only to become engulfed in a cloud of smoke that burned his throat as he breathed, he could only imagine what had happened to Arthur.

As he ran up the stairs, he tried his best to not picture the worst, despite how long he knew Arthur, he wasn't willing to give up on him, the American was never willing to give up on anything or anyone, despite how many people had given up on him…  
As a child he dreamed of using his powers to become a hero, however, he only seemed to create misery for the people who were kind enough to adopt him. His powers wouldn't let him help, it would only make him disrupt and destroy, he scared people instead of saving them, he didn't know why he was going so wrong…  
This pain and disappointment drove Alfred to become something so great that no one would ever want to leave him again, thus, he was determined to be a hero, and now: he had to be Arthur's hero.

He had become attached… He always did that to himself: becoming attached to the people who showed the slightest of interest in him, begging them to not hurt him as he fell hopelessly to their mercy. He would do all he could to not disappoint, however, his powers always managed to do that for him, and drive the people he cared about most away from him.

He pushed open the door to the second floor, feeling the burn of the intense fire in the air, as fire had engulfed the entire level. Alfred looked up to see the roof struggling to hold itself up, considering the damage that Arthur did to the third floor during his first attack on the building.

He could imagine Arthur breathing fire with a powerful rage, like an unstoppable dragon, setting alight all that stood in his way.

He ran through the level, trying his best to avoid running into the flames, he felt his skin burn and the smoke burn his throat. He took the collar of his t-shirt and held it over his face, to provide some kind of filter. The search began to feel pointless, and Alfred's anxiety grew as he pondered about where Arthur could be, and what that doctor did to him… He knew that this fire was a result of Arthur's fury, so he had to be here… Something went wrong.

Alfred opened the door to one of the rooms, and was confronted by the sight of a figure lying in the centre of the room, surrounded by a circle of powerful and angry flames.

"ARTHUR!" Alfred cried.  
When Arthur didn't respond, Alfred froze when he realised that he couldn't see the rising and falling of Arthur's chest. "ARTHUR!" Alfred stood back and contemplated his actions, if he could get a running start he knew he could jump over the flames. Bracing himself, Alfred positioned himself to run, wasting no more time; Alfred sprinted towards the flames, before jumping over it, feeling the burning sensation over his legs. Alfred did not land gracefully and crashed to his knees, he crawled towards Arthur and gasped at the sight of multiple bloody cuts across the Brit's neck. "FUCK! NO!" Alfred cried as he pulled the Brit's limp body onto his lap, "COME ONE, DUDE! DON'T PULL THIS ON ME! _PLEASE!_ " Alfred's eyes became clouded by the presence of tears as he patted his hands on Arthur's face, before moving to his blood-soaked neck then down to his chest. Alfred whimpered incoherently as he stared at Arthur's blank face. _"Come on, please..."_ Alfred pressed his ear to the Brit's chest, desperately trying to listen for a sign of hope, he tried to block out the noise of the raging fire behind him and the beating of his own aching heart.

 _Boom … boom-boom … boom-boom... boom-boom..._

Alfred gasped with relief at the sign of a faint heartbeat coming from Arthur's chest, a sign of hope. Alfred smiled widely at the sign of life as a tear ran down the American's cheek. "THANK GOD!" Alfred gasped as he pulled Arthur's body towards him, scooping him off of the floor and holding him in his arms. "Come on, we're gonna get you out of here, I promise!" With one arm scooped behind Arthur's knees, and the other arm cradling his shoulders, Alfred rose from the ground, listening to the building's foundations moan, this building was going to fall, and it was going to fall soon. Alfred jumped through the flames again, struggling to avoid burning his legs because of the extra weight he carried, the buildings structure roared as Alfred watched the walls crack and break to the power of the flames.

Alfred jumped down multiple stairs at once, only to slip and fall on his back, banging his head on the metal base of the stairs, he felt Arthur lay on him, and Alfred tightened his grip, desperate to not lose him now. His vision blurred as his head ached in pain along with his chest as the smoke air scorched his throat, making it harder and harder to breathe after each breath. However he was determined to not let his clumsiness slow him down, he rose from the staircase, feeling the burning heat of the heated metal burn the palm of his hand. He ignored the buckling of his knees as he continued to carry Arthur down the stairs, careful to not take any more dangerous shortcuts. Suddenly as he opened the door to the lobby, he heard the noise of the upper levels crashing down, and dust began to fill the entire lobby as the roof collapsed. Alfred dropped to the ground, laying himself over Arthur, if he wasn't going to be a hero, he was prepared to die trying.

Alfred eyes glazed over with a white hue, as he felt his powers form a barrier around himself and Arthur, protecting them from the oncoming assault of rubble and fire.  
It became impossible for Alfred to keep hold of all of the pressure, and everything went black.

 **PHASE SIXY-SIX**

Feliciano watched with horror and instinctually grabbed onto Ludwig's arm as the group watched the building fall, well aware that Alfred was still in there with Arthur.

"Come on!" Matthew cried as he ran towards the rubble, as the sky became engulfed in the thick dust, "we need to get them!"

"How do you know they're still alive?!" Yao asked, shocked by the sight of what just happened.

"Alfred wouldn't let himself die…" Francis pointed out, "he is much more capable than what he lets on."

"He's right," Ivan agreed, "we should at least look for them. We all saw the door to the staircase open, there is hope."

It was Feliciano who ran first, running over the sharp and dangerous rubble, and Ludwig ran after him, pickup up the largest pieces of rubble and moved it out of the way with the goal of creating a safe path for the others.

Kiku could no longer find the strength to move in his legs, instead looking down at the body of the doctor, seeing the copious amounts of blood form a puddle around him. He couldn't believe that he had gone so quickly, with one swift movement, Kiku had taken back the honour the man before him stole. A threat that had taken away so much was easily taken away himself, proving that despite his abilities, his life was still precious and fragile.

"Come on," Gilbert mumbled, taking Kiku's free arm and hooking it over his shoulder and helped him walk towards the van as Lovino opened the back door for him, "you need to rest the most."

"I see you found the carpark…" Kiku murmured as Gilbert helped him walk into the back of the van, where seats lined the sides, keeping a small space free in the middle.

"It took us a while," Gilbert chuckled, "the map wasn't much of a help, but at least it gave us a plan."

"Good…" Kiku murmured as he clumsily fell back onto the seat, taking a deep breath, as though his heart wasn't prepared to accept the fact that the fight was over.

"Do you want some water? Something to eat?" Gilbert asked, "Mattie and I found the breakroom and emptied the fridge."

"Mattie?" Kiku asked, Gilbert smiled; enjoying the nickname he had used for the Canadian, "yes, some water would be great."

Meanwhile, Francis and Matthew carefully made their way across the rubble, carefully keeping themselves upright.  
Francis' goal was to hear someone's thoughts, or a sign of life… he could hear something in the back of his mind, another itch, however it wasn't an itch to destroy or manipulate, it was an itch that begged for Francis attention. The itch grew worse as Francis journeyed further into the rubble, and the itch turned into a noise, like a cry for help… in an American accent.

Francis froze as he listened to the thoughts as they grew louder as Francis got closer to the source, until he stood before a slab of rubble, where the source of the thought came from beneath.

"LUDWIG!" Francis cried, catching the Germans attention from the other side of the disaster sight, as well as everyone else's. "I HEAR HIS THOUGHTS! HE'S OVER HERE!"  
Ludwig ran over quickly, grabbing onto the piece of rubble as Francis instructed, before lifting the large and jagged piece of concrete. Revealing two unharmed, but unconscious figures underneath. Alfred laid on top of Arthur, effectively shielding him, without the rubble and destruction, as well as the blanket of dust that covered him, it would have appeared like the two were sleeping.

 **PHASE SIXTY-SEVEN**

Arthur wasn't expecting to take in a breath of fresh air as he drifted back into consciousness, in fact, he wasn't expecting to wake up at all. He felt a sudden jolt, and his eyes opened with surprise. He was nearly blinded by the bright lights and the eyes of all of his friends gathered around him, they all sat either next to him, or sitting across from him, in what appeared to be in the back of a van.

"Arthur…" A familiar voice whispered, sounding like a peaceful chime of bells in the Brit's ear, Arthur looked to his side to see Alfred glancing up at him from Arthur's shoulder, where Alfred's head laid. Alfred's eyes were red and sore from crying, despite this, Alfred smiled as Arthur frowned at him.

"You…" Arthur stuttered, unable to put together what had happened, however, Arthur knew that the reason he was still alive was because of the man who rested his head on his shoulder.

"I did…" Alfred whispered.  
Arthur stared down at Alfred, unable to deny that whilst he would have been contempt with the idea of dying… he was glad that he had a hero to thank for saving his life…

Suddenly the sliding window to the front seat of the van slid open, revealing Matthew and Gilbert, "has anyone thought about where we could actually go?" Gilbert asked.

"Where are we?" Ludwig asked.

"Luckily for us, the van as a GPS," Matthew pointed out, looking at the screen that sat next to the steering wheel. "It says we're in Eastern Europe… We're in Romania right now, really _remote_ Romania."

"Great." Ivan sighed, "We're far from anywhere."

"So, does anyone have any ideas?" Gilbert asked.

Feliciano looked at Lovino, to see his older brother already looking at him, as though they had the same idea.

"Do you think we could go back to Italy? Grandfathers mansion has more than enough room for everybody, and we'd still have the funds he left for us, if Capo hadn't figured out the password or fought his will." Lovino explained quietly.

"But the Mafia, won't Capo have us attacked if we appear in Italy again?" Feliciano asked.

"Fratello…" Lovino chuckled as a dark smile curved his lips and narrowed his eyes, "if anything, he should be afraid of us…"  
Feliciano returned this smile, before turning to face Gilbert and Matthew, "We have an idea."

 **PHASE SIXTY-EIGHT**

The GPS estimated-13 hour journey took nearly two days, as the group had to continuously stop and steal supplies and food, and were only able to get away with it because of the abilities of Francis, Matthew and Gilbert.

Eventually they arrived in Rome, where the shining sun greeted the group, welcoming them to freedom. Lovino and Feliciano instructed the group on how to reach their former home; their grandfathers mansion. Of course, the grand house was run by their former boss: Capo. Using their powers as a team, the group managed to take over the mansion in less than an hour, and began to dream of the new life they could all have together, pondering at the possibilities of their power and what wisdom the horrible experience had given them.  
Many had accepted the fact that their lives would never be the same again, as Francis warned that the power of the company that took them is not dead, and they needed to keep each other safe, as they took them so easily when they were alone.  
They had all accepted that the memories of their experience was going to haunt them forever, the atrocities they had committed in the pursuit of freedom was something they were all going to live with until the day they died, however, they all accepted that, as they knew that they did what they could to survive: and they won.  
As a team, they knew that they could survive anything, and with the help of the Italians, they had found something that they had all longed for, ever since the days that their powers changed their lives forever: a home.

As time passed, the team could beat down any force that threatened their peace, and they learned that despite their threat still being active, that they were going to beat them and escape every single time. When they stood together and fought as a team, nothing could tear them apart.


End file.
